A global study has revealed promising progress in the treatment against lung cancer. This is a test that carries out a new drug combination which has been able to stop the development of lung cancer for a longer time, specifically 40% longer than standard treatment.
According to the WHOlung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide—accounting for about 1.8 million deaths each year—and It is usually diagnosed at an advanced stage of the diseasewhen treatment options are limited. The investigation, published exclusively by the newspaper Guardianhas shown “incredible” results, say the doctors who have carried it out.
The trial recruited 1,074 patients with advanced forms of lung cancer from different countries such as the United Kingdom, the United States, Australia, France, Brazil, India and China. Specifically, all of them suffered non-microcritical carcinoma (NSCLC), the most common type of lung cancer that grows slowly, and also they had a mutation of the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) gene, which is found in up to a quarter of lung cancer cases globally and in approximately 40% of cases in Asia. This mutation is more common in women than in men, as well as in people who have never smoked or have been light smokers.
Those who took a combination of the drugs amivantamab and lazertinib They saw their disease not progress after an average of 23.7 months, according to the conclusions of this global study. The progression-free survival data is higher than that of those patients who were given the standard drug, osimertinibwhich halted development for an average of 16.6 months.
“By combining these two drugs, which prevent cancer from growing in different ways, we see a significant improvement in progression-free survival rates compared to the drug we currently use,” said Professor Raffaele Califano, consultant in medical oncology and principal investigator of the trial at The Christie hospital in Manchester.
“It’s amazing to see that this new combination shows longer cancer control than osimertinib, which itself was a breakthrough treatment just a few years ago,” said Professor Martin Forster, medical oncologist at University College Hospital and principal investigator of the UK trial.
Lung cancer survival rates are still very low compared to other cancers, so seeing these positive results sheds a light on the investigation against cancer. “The more treatment options we have, the more hope we will give to patients and families,” says Califano.
For Forster, “this precision approach is improving results for many more of our patients, as new drugs are being developed to exploit vulnerabilities identified in an increasing number of lung cancers.
Anna Kinsella, research manager at Cancer Research UK, has valued these results as “good news”: “Research like this helps more people live longer and better, without fear of cancer,” he concludes.
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