Sci-Bytes> Hot Paper in Medicine
Week of October 31, 2011
"Gefitinib or carboplatin-paclitaxel in pulmonary adenocarcinoma," by Tony S. Mok and 18 others, New England Journal of Medicine, 361(10): 947-57, 3 September 2009.
[Authors' affiliations: 14 institutions worldwide]
From the abstract: "Background: Previous,
uncontrolled studies have suggested that first-line treatment with
gefitinib would be efficacious in selected patients with non-small-cell
lung cancer. Methods: In this phase 3, open-label study,
we randomly assigned previously untreated patients in East Asia who had
advanced pulmonary adenocarcinoma and who were nonsmokers or former light
smokers to receive gefitinib (250 mg per day) (609 patients) or carboplatin
(at a dose calculated to produce an area under the curve of 5 or 6 mg per
milliliter per minute) plus paclitaxel (200 mg per square meter of
body-surface area) (608 patients). The primary end point was
progression-free survival. Results: The 12-month rates of
progression-free survival were 24.9% with gefitinib and 6.7% with
carboplatin-paclitaxel. The study met its primary objective of showing the
noninferiority of gefitinib and also showed its superiority, as compared
with carboplatin-paclitaxel, with respect to progression-free survival in
the intention-to-treat population (hazard ratio for progression or death,
0.74; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.65 to 0.85; P<0.001).
Conclusions: Gefitinib is superior to
carboplatin-paclitaxel as an initial treatment for pulmonary adenocarcinoma
among nonsmokers or former light smokers in East Asia. The presence in the
tumor of a mutation of the EGFR gene is a strong predictor of a better
outcome with gefitinib.”
This 2009 report from the New England Journal of Medicine was
cited 82 times in current journal articles indexed by
Clarivate during
July-August 2011. During that two-month period, only one other medicine
paper published in the last two years, aside from reviews, attracted a
higher number of citations. Prior to the most recent bimonthly count,
citations to the paper have accrued as follows:
May-June 2011: 63 citations
March-April 2011: 106
January-February 2011: 47
November-December 2010: 38
September-October 2010: 45
July-August 2010: 51
May-June 2010: 50
March-April 2010: 22
January-February 2010: 31
November-December 2009: 14
September-October 2009: 1
Total citations to date: 550
SOURCE: Hot Papers Database (Included with a subscription to Science Watch®, available from the Research Services Group of Thomson Reuters. The Hot Papers Database contains data on hundreds of highly cited papers published during the last two years. User interface permits searching by author, organization, journal, field, and more. Total citations, as well as citations accrued during successive bimonthly periods, can be assessed and graphed. New Hot Papers updates are produced every two months.
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