By Jennifer Corbett Dooren

WASHINGTON (Dow Jones)--A key study looking at adding the lung-cancer drug Tarceva to Avastin showed the product helped delay the advancement of the disease while a separate study showed that continuing initial treatment with Alimta helped prolong survival in patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer.

The studies are scheduled to be presented this weekend at the American Society of Clinical Oncology's annual meeting.

Both Alimta, sold by Eli Lilly & Co. (LLY), and Tarceva, sold in the U.S. by Roche's (RHHBY) Genentech and OSI Pharmaceuticals (OSIP) were being studied as maintenance therapy in patients with advanced lung cancer, a relatively new concept of continuing treatment with some drugs after initial chemotherapy but before new tumor growth, which is when additional treatments would typically be started.

In a study known as ATLAS, Tarceva, a pill designed to block a protein involved in tumor growth, was given to some patients who had already been treated with four cycles of chemotherapy in addition to being treated with Avastin. Avastin, another drug by Roche's Genentech unit, is designed to block blood vessels that are involved in tumor growth.

In the study more than 700 patients were randomized to receive Avastin plus a placebo, or fake pill, or Avastin in combination with Tarceva.

The study showed patients in the Tarceva group had a longer time before the cancer started growing again. Median progression-free survival was 4.8 months for patients who received Tarceva and Avastin compared to 3.7 months for patients in the Avastin group, which translated into a 29% reduced risk of disease progression.

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