Lung cancer
A new pill has shown promise of reducing the risk of death from lung cancer by half, according to results of a decade-long global clinical trial.
Results presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology’s (Asco) annual meeting in Chicago demonstrated that taking the AstraZeneca medicine osimertinib after surgery significantly lowered the probability of patients dying by 51%.
Osimertinib, sold under the brand name Tagrisso, targets a specific subtype of lung cancer in patients with non-small cell lung cancer, the most prevalent subtype, and a specific subtype of mutation.
Medical Professionals Stated
According to doctors, around 1.8 million people die from lung cancer each year, making it the most common type of cancer in the world.
“Thirty years ago, there was nothing we could do for these patients,” said lead author Dr. Roy Herbst, the deputy director of Yale Cancer Centre. Now we have this potent drug. “Fifty percent is a big deal in any disease, but certainly in a disease like lung cancer, which has typically been very resistant to therapies.”
The Global Research
The research study examined whether the medication could benefit people with non-small cell lung cancer and involved participants from 26 different nations, ranging in age from 30 to 86.
Every participant in the experiment had an EGFR gene mutation, which is present in up to 40% of lung cancer cases in Asia and accounts for nearly a quarter of all lung cancer cases worldwide. The likelihood of having an EGFR mutation is higher in women than in males, as well as in non-smokers and light smokers.
According to the study’s conclusions, more individuals with lung cancer must undergo testing for the EGFR mutation.
The pill proves to be “practice-changing” and should become the “standard of care” for the quarter of lung cancer patients worldwide with the EGFR mutation, Herbst said.
“This further reinforces the need to identify these patients with available biomarkers at the time of diagnosis and before treatment begins.”
According to the study after five years, 88 percent of patients who took the daily pill after the removal of their tumor were still alive, compared with 78 percent of patients treated with a placebo.
