Skin rash ‘can predict survival benefit for lung cancer therapy’

A Cancer Research UK study has discovered a skin rash that could help predict how likely lung cancer patients are to respond to therapy.

Data from the phase III trial showed that elderly patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who developed a rash within 28 days of receiving the targeted Genentech drug Tarceva (erlotinib) generally experienced better survival rates.

Those who developed the painless rash survived 6.2 months on average, compared to 4.1 months among a placebo control group, while people who also carried EFGR mutations on the surface of their cancer cells survived for 10.4 months.

Further research into this link will help scientists to establish the best way of taking advantage of this effect.

Liz Woolf, head of Cancer Research UK's patient information website CancerHelp UK, said: "We hope these important trial results will in future mean that more people can benefit from the valuable extra months of life that erlotinib can bring some patients."

NSCLC is the most common form of lung cancer, accounting for around 88 percent of all cases.