Pemetrexed Molecular Compounds
Pemetrexed, which is marketed under the trade name ALIMTA is a chemotherapy drug that has been approved by the FDA for the treatment of malignant pleural mesothelioma. French researchers reported in the European Lung Cancer Conference to-2 that the first stage of clinical trials suggest that Pemetrexed is also tolerated quite well by using high doses in combination with concurrent radiation therapy to improve the effectiveness of the treatment of lung cancer.
The first experiments performed using Pemetrexed with cisplatin chemotherapy and radiotherapy in nine patients with stage III non-small-cell lung cancer. A tenth of patients excluded because of disease progression. Seven of the nine remaining patients completed all four cycles of chemotherapy, and eight of them completed the radiation therapy.
One patient receiving the highest dose of pemetrexed experienced grade 4 septic shock, showed a dose-limit toxicity. But overall, pemetrexed tolerated well enough to increase the likelihood of killing cancer cells.