PHILADELPHIA (June 2, 2017) - Martin J. Edelman, MD, FACP, chair of Hematology/Oncology at Fox Chase Cancer Center, presented the results of a clinical study testing palbociclib, a drug used to treat breast cancer, in patients with squamous non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) at the American Society of Clinical Oncology annual meeting in Chicago. Of the 32 patients evaluated, only two responded to the drug, showing it to be ineffective on its own for patients with squamous NSCLC.
“Though the results were negative and we found this drug does not work as a stand- alone agent even in this selected population, this type of research is still valuable,” Edelman said. “We will continue to search for alternatives, but quickly learning what doesn’t work allows us to seek out different treatment options for patients.”
The study was an arm of the Lung Master Protocol (Lung MAP), a nationwide collaboration seeking new therapies for the approximately 50,000 new cases of squamous NSCLC that occur in the U.S. each year.
“When we understand the mechanism that allows a drug to be effective in one type of cancer, intuitively we think it may work in another,” Edelman said. “It is important to remember that not every trial is going to come up positive. Negative trials are just as important because of what we can learn from them.”
The Lung MAP, also known as Southwest Oncology Group Protocol 1400, is an initiative of the National Clinical Trial Network, a National Cancer Institute-funded consortium that conducts clinical trials. Government partners in the Network include the Food and Drug Administration; participating philanthropic organizations include the Foundation for the NIH and Friends of Cancer Research; industry partners include Pfizer Oncology, the manufacturer of palbociclib. Lung MAP was designed to rapidly identify targeted therapies for patients with squamous NSCLC. Each arm of the study tests different drugs in patients whose tumors exhibit specific molecular abnormalities.