Lung cancer is the number one cause of cancer death in men and women, but huge randomized trials of thousands of patients have either failed completely or shown negligible survival differences.

Researchers at the University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, funded by a grant from the U.S. Department of Defense, have successfully completed a novel Phase II clinical trial program, BATTLE (Biomarker-integrated Approaches of Targeted Therapy for Lung Cancer Elimination). Results suggest that patients prescribed treatment with existing drugs based on their tumor biomarkers benefit more than patients whose treatment is not based on their tumor biomarkers.

The full data on this trial were presented at a plenary session at the American Association for Cancer Research 101st Annual Meeting 2010, in Washington, D.C.

Read more on the BATTLE trial in our blogs section.