Experts welcome new dual-drug therapies that can increase survival in lung cancer patients

Experts welcome the “breakthrough” in lung cancer treatment, thanks to new dual-drug therapies that can reduce the risk of recurrence and increase survival for years.

The results of the study released this month show that patients who receive the immunotherapy drug nibolumab with chemotherapy before chemotherapy are more likely to live longer than those who receive chemotherapy alone. Was shown.

Those suffering also remained asymptomatic for almost a year or more after completing treatment.

Nivolumab is already NHS For lung cancer patients, it is given after surgery or chemotherapy. Doctors believe that test results set new standards for patient care.

Tobias Arkenau, a consultant oncology scholar at the Sara Cannon Institute in the United Kingdom, said:

“The days when we can only provide chemotherapy and the prognosis is quite dark are almost gone.

And with nivolumab, there is even hope for healing. This is a breakthrough test for cancer patients and a life-changing one. “

One patient who directly experienced the significant effects of nivolumab is Norma McAra, 70 years old. Arbroath’s three grandmothers (right) were first diagnosed with advanced lung cancer in 2013.

At a meeting of the American Cancer Society two weeks ago, Dr. David Carbon, an oncology scholar at the Ohio State University Center for Cancer in Columbus, called the results “another breakthrough in the treatment of lung cancer.”

He added: “The combination of immunotherapy and surgery is a new standard of care and I think it will almost certainly improve overall survival for early-stage disease for the first time in decades.”

Lung cancer is the most common cause of cancer death in the United Kingdom and accounts for about one-fifth of all deaths from this disease.

There are 50,000 new cases annually, and 60% of patients die within a year of diagnosis. One in five men and one in five women have survived for more than five years.

People in the early stages of the disease are usually offered surgery to remove part of the lung (and the tumor in it) in hopes of healing.

This is usually followed by chemotherapy, which kills cancer cells that have spread elsewhere in the body and prevents the cancer from recurring.

However, one-third to one-half of the patients who have had surgery relapse and eventually die of illness.

During the study, 358 patients were divided into two groups. Both were treated with 3 doses of chemotherapy at 3-week intervals, but one group received an additional dose of nivolumab by intravenous infusion at the same time.

Nivolumab is a type of drug known as a checkpoint inhibitor. It works by blocking a protein called PD-1 found in tumor cells. This helps to “camouflage” the cancer and avoid the immune system.

By blocking PD-1, nivolumab “reveals” the tumor and the immune system attacks and eliminates the cancer. Chemotherapy, on the other hand, attacks cancer cells directly.

After three treatment cycles, there was a 6-week wait before surgery.

Patients with nivolumab had a 37% reduced risk of disease recurrence, progression, and death after almost two years compared to patients who received chemotherapy alone.

It is not completely understood why treatment before surgery is so effective.

But last year, the same research team revealed that this approach dramatically reduced the size of the tumor before surgery. This allows the surgeon to easily remove all cancerous tissue, leaving a quarter of patients virtually cancer-free.

One patient who directly experienced the significant effects of nivolumab is Norma McAra, 70 years old.

Arbros’s three grandmothers were first diagnosed with advanced lung cancer in 2013.

Her doctor sent her to a scan as a precautionary measure – and a tumor was detected in her lungs. Norma received chemotherapy and radiation therapy. “All the scans are back to clear, so I thought everything was in place,” she says.

But in 2016, her cancer recurred and she endured another year of chemotherapy. The following year, she took nivolumab because her use of the NHS was approved.

Norma says:’I’m not looking back. I go to drip once every two weeks, and that’s it. fine.

“When I was told I had lung cancer, it felt like a death sentence. Now the patient takes the medicine I’m taking just a few times before surgery and is given the same hope. It is amazing to think that.