Paclitaxel and carboplatin in the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer

This news release caught my eye because of the “elderly” in the title (you know how I feel about that word) ... Briefly, this phase-3 study randomized patients aged 70 years and older to weekly or every three weeks paclitaxel along with carboplatin (every three weeks) for first-line treatment of non-small cell lung cancer. The regimens, I would argue, were pretty similar in efficacy with perhaps a slight advantage to weekly (slight, six-week improvement in medial survival). But there was also less neuropathy in the weekly arm, arguing to me that that is really the preferred treatment if you are thinking of doublet therapy for an older adult with non-small cell lung cancer.

But here’s where I got a giggle from the news release, they quote the study’s primary author, Dr. Chandra Belani as saying, “Moreover, the weekly regimen ‘has the advantage of less side effects and overall better tolerability,’ Dr. Chandra P. Belani, deputy director of the Penn State Cancer Institute in Hershey, Pa., told Reuters Health. Paclitaxel when given weekly, she added, ‘has a better therapeutic index,’ especially in the elderly who are more prone to increased side effects from chemotherapy.’” I have met and heard Dr. Belani speak on several occasions, and I assure you he is a male. So, I wonder did Reuters actually speak with him about this or was this an email “conversation” where gender was inferred from the name? Or maybe an innocent typo? In my grant-writing haze, this still provided me with a little smile.

Click here for a cool blog “blast” rounding up some interesting cancer-related blog entries, by some medical professionals and some lay folks as well. Have a good weekend, and don’t forget to tune into Stand Up to Cancer tonight.