The majority of patients with advanced stage disease who were treated with the combination regimen demonstrated an improvement on imaging studies, according to results published in the journal Clinical Cancer Research.
After six to eight weeks, eight out of 14 patients responded positively to treatment. Six of these responses were partial, meaning that the cancer persisted but bone imaging studies showed an improvement, and two of the responses were mixed.
“Quadramet is the most specific agent currently available for targeting osteoblastic metastases of osteosarcoma (bone cancer),” said Dr Peter Anderson, the lead investigator in the independent study, and Pediatric Oncologist at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. “These results indicate that a radio-sensitizing chemotherapeutic can be added to such a regimen. The positive clinical responses observed in this study indicate that further evaluation of this combination strategy is warranted.”