Lung Cancer drug works better with Coca-Cola

Patients with the leading form of lung cancer may be able to look to Coca-Cola Classic to solve a common medicinal challenge, new research suggests.
As the Dutch scientists explain it, the effectiveness of the powerful lung cancer drug Tarceva (erlotinib) depends on the pH level of the stomach. But many people on Tarceva must also take a proton pump inhibitor heartburn medication, such as Nexium or Prilosec, which raises stomach pH to more alkaline levels.
That higher pH can lower the absorption rate for Tarceva, cutting its effectiveness in fighting non-small-cell lung cancer, research suggests.
One prior study involving healthy volunteers found the use of Prilosec lowered blood concentrations of Tarceva by 61 percent.
In the new study, researchers led by Dr. Roelof van Leeuwen, of Erasmus MC Cancer Institute in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, wondered if the solution might be to reverse stomach pH "by taking Tarceva with the acidic beverage cola," namely Coca-Cola Classic.
The study focused on 28 people with non-small-cell lung cancer who were taking Nexium plus Tarceva. For two weeks, half of the patients took about 8 ounces of water with their meds for the first seven days, and then the same amount of Coca-Cola Classic for the next seven days. The following two weeks, the patients took the beverages in the reverse order.
  "Coke intake led to a clinically relevant and statistically significant increase" in the absorption of Tarceva for patients taking Nexium.