Genentech Touts Cancer Treatment

New Orleans--Genentech Inc.’s experimental anti-VEGF cancer drug shows sufficient potential to warrant large-scale trials as a treatment for lung cancer, though questions remain about its safety after four patients suffered fatal hemorrhages, the company said.

Patients getting the highest dose of the drug survived longer and went longer without having their cancer worsen than patients who got a common treatment using traditional chemotherapy drugs, the company said.

As reported last month, four of 66 patients studied died of lung hemorrhages probably related to the treatment. Two other patients had nonfatal hemorrhages. Still, full data from the study, presented at the American College of Clinical Oncology, shows “compelling” benefit, said David Johnson, the director of medical oncology at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

“All these drugs have unexpected side effects, and it’s our job to learn how to manage those side effects,” said Johnson, a member of the government-funded Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group, one of the most prestigious groups of cancer doctors in the country, which has signed on to run trials on the drug, scheduled to begin by the end of the year.