Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Tumor Treating Fields--a promising new treatment for many kinds of cancer.

I reviewed this Ted.com presentation this morning and I have to say, if any of you out there know who is conducting the clinical trials for lung cancer using this treatment method, please let me know. 

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Clinicaltrials.gov, an NIH site of registered clinical trials, indicates the following:
Small trial, of TTF in lung cancer, sponsored by NovoCure Ltd
http://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT00749346?term=novocure&rank=2
Looks like results haven't been analyzed and/or reported yet
Looks like this trial was done in Switzerland

The company’s website indicates they’re going to do a trial in patient with non-small cell lung cancer: http://www.novocure.com/clinical_trials.php?ID=1
It says: “Lung – Planned
Novocure is preparing an IDE submission for a pivotal (phase III) trial of TTF therapy given in combination with chemotherapy for patients with non-small cell lung cancer. Please check back on this website to follow the progress of this clinical program.”

Here's a link to a WSJ article on the therapy in brain cancer patients: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703303904575292691538647642.html

I have no knowledge of this therapy and am not advocating for it in any way--just providing info.

Anonymous said...

Some results evidently have been presented at meetings. These links were accessed from the company’s (NovoCure’s) website (http://www.novocure.com/publication.php?ID=2)

http://annonc.oxfordjournals.org/content/21/suppl_8/viii122.full.pdf+html

Ann Oncol (2010) 21(suppl 8): viii122-viii161.

371PD A PHASE II STUDY OF TUMOR TREATING FIELDS
(TTFIELDS) IN COMBINATION WITH PEMETREXED FOR
ADVANCED NON SMALL CELL LUNG CANCER (NSCLC)
M. Pless1, D.C. Betticher2, M. Buess3, R. von Moos4, U. Weinberg5, E. Kirson5,
Y. Palti6
1Oncology, Kantonsspital Winterthur, Winterthur/SWITZERLAND, 2Hospital of
Fribourg, Fribourg/SWITZERLAND, 3Oncology, Hospital St. Clara Basel, Basel/
SWITZERLAND, 4Kantonsspital Graubu¨nden, Chur/SWITZERLAND, 5RandD,
NovoCure, Haifa/ISRAEL, 6NovoCure, Haifa/ISRAEL

Results: 41 patients, including 7 (17.1%) with squamous cell carcinoma patients and
30 (73%) with stage IV disease, were enrolled. Median age was 63 years (range 44-78)
and 7 (17%) had ECOG of 2. Patients received a median of 4 courses of pemetrexed
(Range 1-33). The device was well tolerated and the average daily use was 11.2 hours -
83% of patients received at least one 3-week TTFields course and had a median of
4.2 courses of TTFields (range 1-32) for a cumulative time of over 720 weeks. None of
the SAE’s reported was TTFields-related. The only device related AE seen in patients
was mild to moderate dermatitis under the electrodes reported in 14 patients, which
usually improved with topical steroid use. Median systemic PFS was 22 weeks and local
PFS in the lungs and abdomen was 28 weeks. Median OS was 13.8 months and 1-year
survival 57%. 6 patients (14.6%) had a radiological PR and 16 SD (39%).

Conclusions: In addition to being well tolerated and safe when given together with
Pemetrexed, efficacy endpoints were remarkably high compared to historical data for
Pemetrexed alone. These results indicate TTFields could be considered as a potential
future treatment for patients with advanced NSCLC, in combination with chemotherapy.
Disclosure: U. Weinberg: Dr. Uri Weinberg works for NovoCure.; E. Kirson: Dr. Eilon
Kirson works for NovoCure.; Y. Palti: Prof. Yoram Palti founded NovoCure. All other
authors have declared no conflicts of interest.

Poster Presented at European Respiratory Society Annual Congress, September 18-22, 2010.

http://www.ersnet.org/learning_resources_player/abstract_print_10/files/64.pdf

64. Treatmentoflungcancer
363
An openlabelpilotstudyoftumortreating fields(TTFields)incombination
withpemetrexed(Pem)foradvancednon-smallcelllungcancer(NSCLC)
UriWeinberg2 , IsabelleFresard1, MarcKueng1, RichardCathomas3,
MartinBuess4, MiklosPless5, YoramPalti2 , EilonKirson2, DanielBetticher1.
1InternalMedicine,HFRFribourg,CantonalHospital,Fribourg,Switzerland;
2Biotechnology,NovoCureLtd,MatamCenter,Haifa,Israel; 3InternalMedicine,
CantonalHospitalofGraubünden,Chur,Switzerland; 4Oncology,CCRC
UniversityHospitalofBasel,Basel,Switzerland; 5InternalMedicine,Cantonal
HospitalofWinterthur,Winterthur,Switzerland

Results: Study pts received the TTFields together with Pem for over 435weeks (cumulativelyfor all pts).The median observation time was 8 months.Toxicity:5 SAE were reported,none of which hwereTTFields-norPem-related.There were no side effects including cardiac arrhythmia or myelosuppression induced by the TTFields.The onlyTTFields-related adverse event was dermatitis in areas covered by the electrodes. Activity: 2pts(17%) had partial response and 7(58%) had stable disease(clinical benefit in 65% of pts). Progression-free survival at 6 months for all pts was 50%,and 1-yea survival was 43%.

Conclusions: TTFields in combination with Pem is a safe treatment for advanced NSCLC pts with promising results which deserve further investigation in larger trials.

More complete, easier to read if you go to the links.

Anonymous said...

Some results evidently have been presented at meetings. These links were accessed from the company’s (NovoCure’s) website (http://www.novocure.com/publication.php?ID=2)

I’ve just reproduced the titles, authors, and conclusions; there’s a little more info in the complete abstracts online.

http://annonc.oxfordjournals.org/content/21/suppl_8/viii122.full.pdf+html

Ann Oncol (2010) 21(suppl 8): viii122-viii161.

371PD A PHASE II STUDY OF TUMOR TREATING FIELDS
(TTFIELDS) IN COMBINATION WITH PEMETREXED FOR
ADVANCED NON SMALL CELL LUNG CANCER (NSCLC)
M. Pless1, D.C. Betticher2, M. Buess3, R. von Moos4, U. Weinberg5, E. Kirson5,
Y. Palti6
1Oncology, Kantonsspital Winterthur, Winterthur/SWITZERLAND, 2Hospital of
Fribourg, Fribourg/SWITZERLAND, 3Oncology, Hospital St. Clara Basel, Basel/
SWITZERLAND, 4Kantonsspital Graubu¨nden, Chur/SWITZERLAND, 5RandD,
NovoCure, Haifa/ISRAEL, 6NovoCure, Haifa/ISRAEL

Conclusions: In addition to being well tolerated and safe when given together with
Pemetrexed, efficacy endpoints were remarkably high compared to historical data for
Pemetrexed alone. These results indicate TTFields could be considered as a potential
future treatment for patients with advanced NSCLC, in combination with chemotherapy.
Disclosure: U. Weinberg: Dr. Uri Weinberg works for NovoCure.; E. Kirson: Dr. Eilon
Kirson works for NovoCure.; Y. Palti: Prof. Yoram Palti founded NovoCure. All other
authors have declared no conflicts of interest.

Poster Presented at European Respiratory Society Annual Congress, September 18-22, 2010.

http://www.ersnet.org/learning_resources_player/abstract_print_10/files/64.pdf

64. Treatmentoflungcancer
363
An open label pilot study of tumor treating fields(TTFields) in combination
With pemetrexed (Pem) for advanced non-small cell lungcancer (NSCLC)
UriWeinberg2 , IsabelleFresard1, MarcKueng1, RichardCathomas3,
MartinBuess4, MiklosPless5, YoramPalti2 , EilonKirson2, DanielBetticher1.
1Internal Medicine, HFR Fribourg, Cantonal Hospital, Fribourg, Switzerland;
2 Biotechnology, NovoCureLtd, MatamCenter, Haifa, Israel;
3 InternalMedicine,Cantonal Hospital of Graubünden, Chur, Switzerland;
4 Oncology,CCRC Universit yHospital of Basel, Basel, Switzerland;
5 Internal Medicine,Cantonal Hospital of Winterthur, Winterthur,Switzerland

Conclusions: TTFields in combination with Pem is a safe treatment for advanced NSCLC pts with promising results which deserve further investigation in larger trials.

Again, not promoting this--just providing info.