The patients of lung cancer, which is the 2nd most common cancer worldwide and one of the leading causes of death, have good news for them.
According to new trial findings, taking Tagrisso, also known as osimertinib, a once-daily medication, after tumour-removal surgery cut people's risk of dying from a common lung cancer by 51%.
LiveScience.com reported that the study was the result of a 682-patient trial that included participants diagnosed with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), one of the two main types of primary lung cancer. All patients also had a mutation in the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) gene, which codes for a protein found on the surface of cells. EGFR mutations can boost cancer's ability to grow and spread, raising patients' risk of cancer recurrence post-treatment.
The study was published on Sunday (June 4) in The New England Journal of Medicine, adjuvant osimertinib provided a significant overall survival benefit among patients with completely resected, EGFR-mutated, stage IB to IIIA non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC).
The American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) meeting was held in Chicago from June 2-6, and researchers led by Yale University presented their findings there.
"Thirty years ago, there was nothing we could do for these patients," study co-author Dr. Roy Herbst, deputy director of the Yale Cancer Centre in New Haven, Connecticut, said at the ASCO meeting, The Guardian reported.
"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."
In basic terms, osimertinib inhibits the effects of frequent EGFR mutations. Around 25% of lung cancer patients globally have these mutations, according to The Guardian.
