Medical

Daily Lung Cancer Pill After Surgery Slashes Death Risk By Half, Study Finds

June 5, 2023

A recent study has brought renewed attention to a cancer drug originally developed to prevent metastasis.

Amazingly, the drug has been found to cut lung cancer mortality in half, offering promising results for patients.

Lung cancer is one of the leading causes of death for both men and women in the United States.this American Cancer Society Lung cancer is estimated to kill approximately 127,070 people in the United States each year. In addition to medication, doctors have come to rely on methods such as acupuncture, dietary supplements, massage therapy and hypnosis to provide some relief to cancer patients.

Now, a new study led by Yale University and presented at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology in Chicago found that patients who received osimertinib after surgery significantly reduced mortality by 51%, protector report.

The Adaura trial involved 682 patients aged 30 to 86 from 26 countries to see if a pill could help those with the most common type of lung cancer, called non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), electronic news report.

All study participants had mutations in the EGFR gene, which is present in about a quarter of lung cancer cases worldwide and 40 percent of cases in Asia.

NSCLC is more likely to occur in women, especially those who have never smoked or are light smokers.

About half of the participating patients took a drug developed by AstraZeneca, commonly known as Tagrisso, which was compared to a placebo group for early-stage NSCLC with EGFR.

Despite surgery and additional chemotherapy, a significant number of patients face cancer recurrence. The main purpose of the trial is to investigate whether the drug can provide protection or delay the recurrence of cancer.

Compared with placebo, osimertinib reduced the risk of death by 51%.

Dr. Roy Herbst, deputy director of the Yale Cancer Center and the study’s lead author, raved about the drug, saying: “Thirty years ago, there was nothing we could do for these patients. Now we have 50 percent yes that’s a big deal for any disease, but certainly for a disease like lung cancer, which is often very resistant to treatment.”

“It’s a really dramatic and dramatic improvement,” Dave Fredrickson, executive vice president of oncology at AstraZeneca, said of the drug, according to iNews.