ATLANTA (CNNMoney.com) - The Sanofi-Aventis blockbuster Taxotere improves the chance of survival by 30 percent for patients with head and neck cancer, a lead researcher said Sunday, possibly leading to additional sales for the French drug giant.

This is the latest form of treatment that has been studied for Taxotere, a form of chemotherapy that is on the market in the United States for cancer of the breast, lung, stomach and prostate.

"Given the way this treatment works, we don't expect many more patients to relapse or die from their cancer," said Dr. Marshall Posner, research director of the Sanofi-funded study and medical director of the head and neck oncology program at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston. "I think that this sets a new standard of care that is acceptable to physicians treating patients with head and neck cancer."

Taxotere is one of the top earners for Paris-based Sanofi-Aventis, with sales totaling more than $2.3 billion in 2005, compared to total company sales of $35.3 billion in that time.

Sanofi-Aventis filed this latest indication, a treatment for head and neck cancer, to the Food and Drug Administration this quarter. If the FDA approves it, that could result in additional sales for the company.

Posner, an associate professor at Harvard Medical School, announced the study results at the annual conference of the American Society of Clinical Oncology. In the study, Taxotere, a form of chemotherapy also known as docetaxel, was combined with standard forms of chemo, like cisplatin -- the study compared patients being treated with the combination with those being treated only with standard chemo.

Posner said that "30 percent fewer patients died from their disease" in the Taxotere study of 501 patients, conducted from 1999 to 2003 with a two-year follow up.

In the United States, about 40,000 people are diagnosed with head and neck cancer every year, and thousands die. Smoking, drinking, and the human papillomavirus are leading causes for this type of cancer.

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From the annual conference of the American Society of Clinical Oncology:

• Favorable results for Glaxo breast-cancer drug
• Novartis improves on bone marrow cancer treatment