FDAnews
www.fdanews.com/articles/87281-study-celecoxib-may-increase-benefit-of-erlotinib-in-lung-cancer

STUDY: CELECOXIB MAY INCREASE BENEFIT OF ERLOTINIB IN LUNG CANCER

June 2, 2006

The addition of celecoxib (Celebrex) to treatment with erlotinib (Tarceva) for advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) appears to be safe and to increase the proportion of patients who respond to erlotinib, suggest the results of a Phase I trial.

Previous research has demonstrated that the cyclooxygenase 2 (COX-2) and epidermal growth factor receptor tyrosine kinase (EGFR-TK) are overexpressed in some cancers, including NSCLC. Erlotinib is a highly specific EGFR-TK inhibitor, and celecoxib is a COX-2 inhibitor.