Study Shows Pfizer Drug More Effective than AZ Competitor

A targeted drug from Pfizer was said to hold advanced lung cancer in check longer than AstraZeneca's Iressa in newly diagnosed patients, but with more side effects, according to a Reuters article.

The late-stage study of 452 patients with EGFR-positive non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) compared Pfizer's next generation oral drug, dacomitinib, with the older treatment that also targets abnormal epidermal growth factor receptor genes in advanced lung cancer. Dacomitinib delayed the cancer from getting worse for 14.7 months compared with 9.2 months for Iressa -- a 41 percent lower risk of cancer progression with the experimental medicine.

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