Biomarkers may guide lung cancer treatment
LOS ANGELES, Feb. 19 (UPI) -- U.S. scientists have discovered biomarkers that predict which patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer will better respond to specific treatments.
The researchers at UCLA's Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center said the biomarkers predict which such patients will respond to a combination treatment of the anti-inflammatory drug Celebrex and the growth factor receptor blocker Tarceva.
The scientists said their finding might help oncologists personalize treatment, prescribing drugs they know patients will respond to and sparing them from therapies that won't work.
Dr. Steven Dubinett, senior author of the study, said the findings, if confirmed, would provide personalized drug combos as an alternative therapy.
"We need good predictors of response to targeted therapy in lung cancer so individual patients receive the specific therapy that targets the particular molecular abnormalities of their tumors," said Dubinett.
The research appears in the Journal of Thoracic Oncology.
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Copyright 2008 by United Press International.
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