TTF Therapy With Chemotherapy Increase Survival for Lung Cancer Patients

Chemotherapy along with tumour treating fields (TTF) therapy showed succesful increase in survival time in patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancr in contrast to just chemotherapy alone.

Physicians delivered TTF Therapy to patients in the study using the NovoTTF-100L-a portable, non-invasive medical device.

Chemotherapy - History, Principles, Aim, Types, Side Effcts, Pros & Cons
'Chemo' means medicine or 'drug', 'therapy' means 'treatment'. Chemotherapy refers to the use of cytotoxic drugs in the treatment of cancer.

The 42 patients had locally advanced and metastatic NSCLC (stage IIIb-IV) and had failed prior treatments with chemotherapy. Patients in the study received TTF Therapy for 12 hours a day in combination with pemetrexed (Alimta; Eli Lilly) until disease progression.

Novocure reported a successful phase III clinical trial of TTF monotherapy in patients with recurrent glioblastoma, an aggressive form of brain cancer.

"We were pleased to report on the results of this multi-center trial of TTF Therapy in a non-brain tumor indication," said Dr. Miklos Pless, head of medical oncology at the Winterthur Hospital Cancer center in Switzerland.

About Chemotherapy Drugs
Chemotherapy drugs perform like ‘magic bullets’ to destroy cancer cells in the body.

"We believe this study has shown TTF Therapy to be completely non-toxic and to have the potential to act as a significant adjunct to chemotherapy in the treatment of NSCLC and other solid tumour indications," he added.

Patients treated with TTF Therapy in combination with pemetrexed had a median overall survival time of 13.8 months compared with the 8.3 months reported for pemetrexed alone.

Lung Cancer - Types, Causes, Symptoms, Diagnosis, Treatment and Prevention
Lung cancer is a malignant tumor in the lung tissues. Smoking is the main cause of lung cancer with symptoms like recurrent respiratory diseases.

The one-year survival rate for the combination was 57 percent compared with the 30 percent reported for pemetrexed alone.

The adverse event for TTF Therapy was mild to moderate skin irritation at the treatment site.

Results of this phase III trial have been filed with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Source-ANI