Adding ImClone’s Erbitux to a regimen of chemotherapy prolonged survival more than chemotherapy alone in patients with head and neck cancer that has recurred or spread, according to a study. Data being presented today found Erbitux patients lived an average of 10.1 months, while those who received only chemotherapy had a median overall survival of 7.4 months.

The survival difference was considered to be statistically significant. “The survival benefit is among the longest ever seen in a large clinical trial among these patients,” says Jan Vermorken, professor of oncology at the University of Antwerp in Belgium, the study’s lead author.

Meanwhile, Avastin helped slow tumor growth in patients with advanced forms of lung cancer, the leading cancer killer worldwide, according to a study presented today. About one-third of patients getting Avastin added to a standard chemotherapy saw their tumors shrink, and for a longer period of time, compared with about 20 percent of patients getting a placebo and chemotherapy.

Avastin was originally approved to treat colon cancer and now is approved for breast cancer in the Europe and lung cancer in the US. The study looked at Avastin with common forms of chemotherapy used in Europe, where it is not approved yet to treat lung cancer. In the study, patients received either 15 milligrams per kilogram of the drug, or 7.5 milligram per kilogram of the drug, and both doses appeared to be similarly effective in stemming tumor growth

Read more about Erbitux here and Avastin here.