A cancer treatment pill proves to be as effective as chemotherapy for lung patients. Although both the treatment can prolong the life by eight months but the pill known as Iressa (gefitinib) causes fewer serious side effects. Thus it can be a better choice for these patients.

"A pill, with less side effects, taken once a day, has similar activity to traditional chemotherapy given by vein every three weeks," said lead researcher Dr. Edward Kim, an assistant professor at the M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.

The significant difference between the two drugs is in side effects. While patients taking Iressa experienced skin rashes and/or mild diarrhea, the patients on Taxotere had many more severe side effects, including hair loss, numbness in hands and feet, severe diarrhea, a drop in blood cells and nausea.

In 2003, Iressa had been given a fast-track FDA approval as a treatment for patients with non-small-cell lung cancer, specifically for patients in whom standard chemotherapy had failed. Two small phase II clinical trials had indicated that Iressa was able to shrink tumors by about 10 percent. This led the FDA to believe that the drug would lead to a "positive effect on survival or benefits."

But a year later, results were revealed from a larger, phase III clinical trial that compared Iressa with placebo in patients for whom chemotherapy was ineffective. "Iressa was better but not statistically significant," said Bunn, who also directs the University of Colorado Cancer Center.

By this time another lung cancer pill -- Tarceva -- had shown a survival benefit. This led the FDA to decide that it is not reasonable to start new patients on Iressa.