A Study of Cisplatin + Pemetrexed + Avastin as First-Line Therapy

In the past, patients with advanced lung cancer who were inoperable underwent chemotherapy with one or more chemotherapeutic agents. More recently, novel new agents targeting specific enzymes or pathways responsible for cell division have been developed and clinicians have begun to utilize various combinations of these drugs with standard chemotherapeutic agents for the treatment of NSCLC. Some of these approaches have demonstrated a small but significant increase in survival among patients with advanced disease. Because a recently completed Phase 3 study of bevacizumab + Taxol/Carboplatin in first line NSCLC therapy demonstrated a 23% improvement in median survival, it would be appealing to see if a regimen of bevacizumab/ cisplatin/Alimta would also demonstrate a similar, or perhaps better, response rate.