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news.Final results from the largest international study in the treatment of advanced stomach cancer have shown that a regimen based on Sanofi-Aventis' Taxotere demonstrates a survival benefit compared to standard treatment.
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In the trial, a Taxotere (docetaxel) injection concentrate-based chemotherapy regimen (Taxotere, cisplatin and 5-FU) had significantly improved overall survival rates compared to patients who received a standard treatment (cisplatin and 5-FU). Overall survival was longer with the Taxotere-based regimen with a statistically significant risk reduction of 23% in mortality at the time of median follow-up of 23 months.
In addition, the study findings showed that twice as many patients treated with the Taxotere-based regimen were alive (18%) compared to those treated with standard therapy (9%) after 23 months of follow-up, which was statistically significant.
“These findings demonstrate that patients with advanced stomach cancer lived longer when we added Taxotere to a standard treatment regimen,” said Dr Jaffer Ajani, professor of GI medical oncology at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, and lead investigator of the study. “This is the first time in a randomized study we are observing an 18% two-year survival rate for this disease.”
Patients in the study also had a significant improvement in time to tumor progression and a significantly better rate of tumor response with the Taxotere-based regimen.
According to Dr Vladimir Moiseyenko, professor at Petrov Research Institute of Oncology in St Petersburg, Russia, “this may be one of the most promising finding in the treatment of advanced gastric cancer in recent years.”