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Page: << Prev | 1 | 2 The signature was then validated in five other databases comprising a total of 372 stage I and II lung cancer patients.
Chemotherapy reduced the risk of death in high-risk patients (both stage IB and stage II) by about 67 percent, but not in low-risk patients.
While a previous analysis showed that overall, only patients with stage II disease benefited from chemotherapy after surgery, this study has demonstrated that the 15-gene signature may identify patients with both stage I and II cancers who would benefit from postoperative chemotherapy, further supporting its use in the selection of appropriate treatments.
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In other news from the meeting, scientists from the University of Medicine and Pharmacy Iuliu Hatieganu in Romania have demonstrated for the first time that maintenance therapy (given after standard "induction" chemotherapy) with the chemotherapy drug Alimta (pemetrexed) extended time to recurrence by 50 percent.
"The data revealed a remarkably statistically significant 40 percent reduction in the risk of progression with pemetrexed, and a doubling of the median progression-free survival," said study author Dr. Tudor Eliade Ciuleanu, an associate professor at the University of Medicine and Pharmacy Iuliu Hatieganu in Romania.
The study involved 663 patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer who had already undergone the initial course of chemo. Eli Lilly, which makes the drug, was involved in the trial.
Patients who received Alimta lived for 4.3 months without a recurrence of the disease, versus 2.6 months for those taking a placebo. Overall survival was 13 months in the Alimta group as compared with 10.2 months in the placebo group.
Finally, a Duke Comprehensive Cancer Center study found that post-surgical lung cancer patients can do well with aerobic exercise regimens starting as little as one month after surgery.
Twenty individuals newly diagnosed with and who had undergone surgery for Stage I to Stage IIIb lung cancer were asked to exercise three times a week for one hour at a time on stationary bikes. After 14 weeks, participants reported being less tired and also had more aerobic fitness (as measured by oxygen levels after exercising).
More information
The National Cancer Institute has more on non-small cell lung cancer.
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