Pfizer Inc. (PFE) said that the cancer treatment Sutent failed to prove that it will be helpful in improving overall survival for late-stage lung cancer in a late-stage trial. It, however, did improve progression-free survival.

Pfizer said that the trial failed to meet its main aim, which was to display that the combination of both the drugs would significantly improve the overall survival.

The company said that the latest study tested Sutent in patients who were suffering from advanced lung cancer and already taking erlotinib which is a Roche Holding AG drug sold as Tarceva.

“Over the next few months, we will conduct an in-depth analysis to gain further insight into these results and determine whether we can identify one or more subgroups of non-small cell lung cancer patients for a future trial in either previously untreated or recurrent disease,” said Mace Rothenberg, a Pfizer executive of clinical development in the company’s oncology unit.

When Sutent came out in 2006, it efficiently advanced kidney-cancer treatment but Pfizer studies failed to improve a measure of survival in breast-cancer patients. The company plans to go ahead with the study of the drug in prostate tumors.