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Company Watch
Roche launches Tarceva for lung cancer
Our News Bureau - Mumbai
 Roche
Scientific Company announced that the innovative drug, Tarceva (erlotinib) will
be available in India. Tarceva brings a glimmer of hope to Indians suffering
from lung cancer. More than 90,000 men and 79,000 women are diagnosed each year
in India with cancer of the lungs and bronchi.
Tarceva is a novel therapy for patients with locally advanced or metastatic
non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), after failure of at least one prior chemotherapy
regimen. It is an oral tablet taken once a day and has the potential to treat
many types of solid tumours. It has been approved in the US since November 2004
and in the European Union since September 2005.
The drug has demonstraed a striking survival benefit (42.5
percent) in advanced non-small cell lung cancer, the most common form of the
disease. It has also been shown to significantly improve patients' quality of
life by alleviating the severe and debilitating symptoms that characterise advanced
stages of the disease, such as cough, pain and breathlessness.
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Chemotherapy can be very debilitating
due to its toxic nature. Tarceva works differently to chemotherapy by
specifically targeting tumour cells, avoiding the typical side-effects
of chemotherapy
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“During the last decade, there have only been marginal
improvements in the effectiveness of chemotherapy agents”, said Dr G L
Telang, Managing Director of Roche Scientific Company. “Tarceva is an innovative
breakthrough in the treatment of lung cancer. It is the only Epidermal Growth
Factor Receptor inhibitor to have demonstrated a survival benefit in lung cancer,”
he added.
Currently, most people with lung cancer are treated with
chemotherapy, which can be very debilitating due to its toxic nature. Tarceva
works differently to chemotherapy by specifically targeting tumour cells, avoiding
typical side-effects of chemotherapy.
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