- Non-small cell lung cancer is the most common type of lung cancer.
- A clinical trial has found that osimertinib, which is a targeted therapy for this type of cancer, improved patients’ chances of survival after surgery.
- Osimertinib was better than placebo at reducing the risk of the cancer spreading to the central nervous system, and appears to have outperformed older drugs in the same class tested in other trials.
- The trial confirmed that the drug is safe and well tolerated by patients.
According to the
The biggest risk factor for this kind of lung cancer is smoking. Some patients experience no symptoms in the early stages of the disease, but of those who do develop symptoms, a common first sign is an unexplained cough that will not go away.
After diagnosis, surgeons can remove part or all of the affected lung, known as “surgical resection.”
Chemotherapy can then prevent the cancer from coming back after surgery. However, the risk of recurrence increases in step with how advanced the initial cancer was.
In patients with NSCLC, the cancer often spreads, or metastasizes, into other parts of the body, especially the central nervous system (CNS).
A class of drugs known as epidermal growth factor receptor inhibitors can improve patients’ chances of disease-free survival. The drugs block a receptor that promotes uncontrolled cell division, which is the hallmark of cancer.
Results from a clinical trial now show that a new inhibitor in this class, called osimertinib, is safe and improves patients’ chances of disease-free survival after surgery.
The researchers speculate that the drug may also be more effective than existing inhibitors at preventing the cancer from spreading to the CNS.
“This therapy was well tolerated and prevented patients from developing metastasis to distant sites such as the brain, bone, and other areas of the lungs,” says lead…
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