Taxotere improves survival in head-neck cancer

By Gene Emery

BOSTON, Oct 24 (Reuters) - Adding the Sanofi-Aventis (SNY.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) (SASY.PA: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) cancer drug Taxotere to standard chemotherapy helps people with head and neck cancer live more than three years longer, two teams of researchers reported on Wednesday.

The inclusion of Taxotere also did not worsen side-effects, the researchers, whose studies were sponsored by the company, reported in the New England Journal of Medicine.

"Here you see the first improvement in head and neck cancer treatment in almost 25 years and it's basically the addition of this drug Taxotere," said Marshall Posner of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, leader of one of the studies.

"And this isn't some small 5 percent improvement. There was a 30 percent reduction in mortality. This was pretty impressive."

Any increase would be welcome for people who suffer tumors in the mouth, larynx and pharynx, which make up about 5 percent of newly diagnosed adult cancers in the United States and 8 percent worldwide.

Most of those growths are not identified until their later stages and, at that point, they can be difficult to treat.

Fewer than half of such patients are alive after three years and in some instances the survival rate is even lower. About 11,000 people in the United States die from head and neck cancer each year, with 46,000 new cases reported annually, according to the American Cancer Society.

In the Posner study, 48 percent of patients who received the standard regimen of cisplatin and fluorouracil as their initial treatment survived for three years, versus 62 percent of those who also received Taxotere, known generically as docetaxel.