- Although chemotherapy has been the standard first line of treatment for advanced non-small cell lung cancer, immunotherapy has recently emerged as a potentially more effective alternative.
- Clinical trial data suggest that cemiplimab, a type of immunotherapy, in combination with chemotherapy, can produce greater improvements in overall survival than chemotherapy alone.
- A phase 3 randomized clinical trial showed that the cemiplimab and chemotherapy combination also produced a greater reduction in pain symptoms and delayed the deterioration of symptoms and functions associated with quality of life than chemotherapy alone in non-small cell lung cancer patients.
The phase 3 EMPOWER-Lung 3 clinical trial had previously shown that
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The results were published in the journal Cancer.
“This study provides valuable evidence supporting the use of cemiplimab in combination with chemotherapy for the first-line treatment of advanced non-small cell lung cancer,” said Dr. Wael Harb, a hematologist and medical oncologist at MemorialCare Cancer Institute at Orange Coast Medical Center in California who was not involved in the study.
“The key takeaway is that this combination not only improves patients’ overall survival but also significantly enhances their quality of life,” he told Medical News Today. “This means that patients experienced fewer or less severe symptoms like pain, shortness of breath, and nausea. These results are important as they show that we can tackle cancer aggressively while still ensuring…
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