PITTSBURGH, June 1 (UPI) -- U.S. scientists say they've discovered a new combination therapy that can help treat advanced head and neck cancers.
University of Pittsburgh researchers said their study suggests the addition of the drug gefinitib -- also known by the trade name Iressa -- to chemotherapy is both safe and effective.
Dr. Ethan Argiris, an associate professor of medicine and co-leader of the study, said such an addition was well tolerated by patients who had already received standard chemotherapy or were frail.
"We had hoped this study would improve the survival rate of patients, but while gefinitib did postpone spread of the disease, it did not increase survival rates," Argiris said. "The finding that the addition of gefinitib to chemotherapy can delay the growth of head and neck cancer suggests a potential beneficial effect from combination therapy."
Argiris said he plans to conduct further studies to identify the subsets of patients most likely to respond to the drug and to examine patients' quality of life while taking the combination therapy.
The research was presented during the weekend in Orlando, Fla., at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology.
