Eli Lilly and Company announced today that the European Commission has granted marketing authorisation for the use of injected pemetrexed (Alimta) as continuation maintenance therapy in patients with advanced nonsquamous non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

Maintenance therapy is a relatively new concept in lung cancer treatment in which patients start maintenance therapy immediately following their first-line treatments to try to maintain disease control. Previous to this, no chemotherapies were approved in the "continuation maintenance" setting, in which one of the same medicines used in first-line treatment is continued as maintenance therapy. Other approved maintenance therapies in lung cancer use different medicines in the first-line and maintenance phases of treatment.

"Lung cancer is one of the most difficult cancers to treat and new therapy options are much needed," said Allen Melemed, M.D., M.B.A., senior medical director with Lilly Oncology.  "Pemetrexed is the first tailored treatment option that can potentially extend lives beginning in first-line treatment and continuing through maintenance in advanced nonsquamous non-small cell lung cancer."

The EC's approval was based on results from PARAMOUNT, a randomized double-blind Phase III study presented in June 2011 at the American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting.

In the EU and U.S., pemetrexed is already approved in the first-line; switch maintenance and second-line settings for treatment of patients with advanced nonsquamous NSCLC.

Source: Eli Lilly and Company