Immunotherapy Drug Significantly Boosts Odds Of Survival For Lung Cancer Patients
The study is a huge victory, and could lead to doctors changing the standard way they treat the common form of lung cancer, experts say.
The Associated Press:
Immune Therapy Scores Big Win Against Lung Cancer In Study
For the first time, a treatment that boosts the immune system greatly improved survival in people newly diagnosed with the most common form of lung cancer. It's the biggest win so far for immunotherapy, which has had much of its success until now in less common cancers. In the study, Merck's Keytruda, given with standard chemotherapy, cut in half the risk of dying or having the cancer worsen, compared to chemo alone after nearly one year. The results are expected to quickly set a new standard of care for about 70,000 patients each year in the United States whose lung cancer has already spread by the time it's found. (Marchione, 4/16)
NPR:
Keytruda Plus Chemotherapy More Effective For Lung Cancer
The study estimates that one year after treatment, 69 percent of patients who received the immunotherapy drug in addition to chemotherapy would still be alive, compared with 49 percent of people who received chemotherapy alone. While that's a notable difference, the drug did not stop cancer entirely in most patients. A year and a half after treatment, the disease had returned in three-quarters of patients with the new treatment. (Harris, 4/16)
The New York Times:
Lung Cancer Patients Live Longer With Immune Therapy
“What it suggests is that chemotherapy alone is no longer a standard of care,” said Dr. Leena Gandhi, a leader of the study and director of the Thoracic Medical Oncology Program at the Perlmutter Cancer Center at New York University Langone Health. Immunotherapy has been making steady gains against a number of cancers. Four such drugs, called checkpoint inhibitors, which unleash the patient’s own immune system to kill malignant cells, have been approved so far. (Grady, 4/16)
USA Today:
New Studies Show Hope For Turning Immune System Against Lung Cancer
Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in the United States, killing more than 150,000 people a year. For cancer that has spread beyond the lungs, the five-year survival rate is historically just 1%. (Weintraub, 4/16)
The Wall Street Journal:
New Drug Combinations Improve Survival In Lung Cancer
Companies in recent years have introduced new drugs that harness patients’ immune systems to fight tumors, such as Merck’s Keytruda and Bristol’s Opdivo. When used alone, the drugs have been shown to improve patient survival in cancers including melanoma and certain types of lung cancer. Keytruda and Opdivo each cost about $13,500 monthly per patient. They don’t work for every patient, however, so companies have been racing to test whether combining immunotherapies with each other or with older drugs could further improve patient survival. (Loftus and Rockoff, 4/16)
The Washington Post:
For Advanced Lung Cancer, Immune Therapy Plus Chemo Prolongs Survival
Scientists who weren't involved in the study agreed that it was highly significant. H. Jack West, an oncologist at Swedish Medical Center in Seattle, said, “It is literally practice-changing — immediately.” Roy Herbst, an oncologist at Yale Cancer Center said that most lung cancer patients now will be offered immunotherapy in some form much earlier than before. Still, he said, the approach was not a cure and there is a lot of room for improvement. The estimated proportion of patients in the combination therapy group who were alive and whose disease had not gotten worse at a year was about 34 percent, about double the proportion for the chemo-only group. (McGinley, 4/16)
Stat:
Keytruda Plus Chemo Dramatically Improves Lung Cancer Patients' Survival
Merck’s treatment brought in $3.8 billion last year, nearly doubling its 2016 revenue thanks in part to its success in the lucrative lung cancer market. And the data presented Monday, which substantially beat analysts’ projections, vault Merck ahead of Bristol-Myers. (Garde, 4/16)
In other cancer treatment news —
The Washington Post:
These Are The Top Priorities For The Nation’s Top Cancer Doctor
Norman “Ned” Sharpless still remembers one of his favorite patients — a 40-ish woman with breast cancer whose chemotherapy treatment stopped working. During one visit, she told him she knew she wouldn’t be cured but hoped to live just six more years, long enough to see her 11-year-old daughter graduate from high school. “It did not seem like too much to ask,” he recalled in a speech to the American Association for Cancer Research annual meeting in Chicago. “But I knew that wasn’t going to happen, not given the limited options for therapy we had.” (McGinley, 4/16)
