One tablet reduces, according to the latest clinical tests, the risk of death from a certain type of lung cancer by half, after the tumor has been removed by operation. This is the “impressive” result of a clinical trial unveiled in Chicago on Sunday June 4, at the largest annual conference of cancer specialists, organized by the American Society for Clinical Oncology (ASCO). Lung cancer is the cancer that causes the most deaths, with approximately 1.8 million deaths deplored each year worldwide.
10 to 15% increased chance of survival at 5 years
This targeted treatment called “osimertinib” was developed by the pharmaceutical group AstraZeneca. It concerns patients suffering from so-called “non-small cell” cancer (the most common form), and presenting a particular type of mutation. These mutations on what is called the EGF receptor affect 10% to 25% of lung cancer patients in the United States and Europe, and 30% to 40% in Asia. About a third of this type of cancer can be operated on when detected.
This treatment was in fact already marketed and already used since 2020 on patients with this specific disease. “It was previously administered to patients with advanced and inoperable stages of cancer with metastases that had already progressed. It is the one that made it possible to prolong their life expectancy the most,” explains Dr. Planchard, oncologist and head of the thoracic pathology department at the Gustave Roussy cancer center.
Conversely, this clinical trial included some 680 participants at an early stage of the disease (stages 1b to 3a), in more than twenty countries. They had to have been operated on first to remove the tumour, then half of the patients took the treatment daily, and the other a placebo. Result: taking the tablet resulted in a 51% reduction in the risk of death for treated patients, compared to placebo. “These are absolute data measured over the entire life of a patient, deciphers the oncologist. Concretely, this means that five years after the operation, which is the threshold from which we can consider that there is no there is no recurrence for cancers, there is a benefit of 10 to 15% more patients alive when they have taken this treatment”. In comparison, chemotherapy can increase the chances of survival by about 5%.
“Increase the chances of curing patients”
The revolution brought by these new data “is that we now know that it can be used in patients at an early stage and significantly reduce their chances of death. This is excellent news”, continues- he. According to the results, the drug helps prevent the disease from spreading to the brain, liver and bones. “It’s a new therapeutic weapon, which can be used daily for three years after the operation and chemotherapy in the hope of preventing recurrences and increasing the chances of curing patients,” said David Planchard.
“Impressive” data, according to Roy Herbst of Yale University, who presented them in Chicago. They also open the door to a new project. There are many other anomalies, ie many other types of lung cancer, for which targeted treatments are sometimes already used to prolong survival in advanced cases. “The next step will be to test all these treatments to find out if they can be used from the early stages to reduce the chances of death in the long term”, explains Doctor Planchard.