Alimta Also Shows Tolerability as Triplet Combination Treatment in First-Line Lung Cancer ATLANTA, June 4 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Data presented today at the 42nd American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) annual meeting in Atlanta, Ga., affirms that ALIMTA(R) (pemetrexed), manufactured and marketed by Eli Lilly and Company, offers patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) similar overall survival as docetaxel (Taxotere(R)). The survival data were part of a large (n=571), randomized Phase III study to evaluate the efficacy and safety profile of Alimta as second-line therapy in NSCLC. First reported in 2003(i), the study found that patients in the Alimta arm achieved 8.3 months of median survival, whereas those in the docetaxel arm obtained 7.9 months. This updated analysis of data tracked patients from the same study nearly two years beyond the conclusion of the original study and found similar results. The updated data showed that patients who received Alimta experienced 8.3 months of median survival compared to 8.0 months for those in the docetaxel arm. "The data mirror previously reported results and confirm the efficacy of Alimta versus docetaxel," said Filippo de Marinis, M.D., director of the Pulmonary-Oncology Unit at San Camillo-Forlanini High Specialization Hospitals in Rome, Italy, and one of the study's principal investigators. "Based on these data, and on its safety advantage, Alimta should be regarded as a standard of care for non-small cell lung cancer patients in the second-line setting." Patients in both arms of the trial were given standard doses of therapy for NSCLC. On day one of a 21-day cycle, patients in the Alimta arm of the trial received Alimta (500 mg/m squared), which was supplemented with vitamin B12 and folic acid as per label instructions. A team of researchers led by Lilly discovered that this vitamin supplementation given with Alimta significantly reduces the frequency and severity of the drug's side effects without compromising its ability to kill cancer cells. Patients in the docetaxel arm were given a 75 mg/m squared infusion. As previously reported, the incidence of severe neutropenia, a decrease in the number of white blood cells that increases the risk of infection, was five percent in the Alimta arm and 40 percent in the docetaxel arm, an eight-fold difference that was statistically significant (p=