Roche stomach cancer treatment at next stage

A new treatment for stomach cancer from Roche is to be tested in a phase III study after preliminary success in laboratory trials.

The firm’s Xeloda product will be examined in the treatment of advanced gastric cancer, after initial results suggested it worked well when added to another form of chemotherapy called cisplatin.

Early signs are that the combination of the two treatments is at least as effective as standard treatment, with Roche global development chief Ed Holdener confident of success.

“Compared to the current standard, where patients spend five days every three weeks in hospital receiving treatment, Xeloda has the additional benefit of reducing that amount of time to only one day, which helps patients to live as normal life as possible,” he said.

The full results from the study will be presented at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) in June.

Gastric cancer is said to be the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the world ? with 140,000 people dying each year in Europe alone from some form of gastric cancer.

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