According to the results of a 5-year clinical trial, a drug developed by the pharmaceutical group “AstraZeneca” can reduce the risk of dying from lung cancer by half, which represents a major advance in the fight against the cancer responsible nearly two million people. deaths each year worldwide.
“It’s a hope for millions of patients with lung cancer. It’s a therapeutic revolution,” says Dr. David Blanchard, thoracic oncologist at the Gustave Rossi Foundation, the first cancer center in France. Europe, at Sky News Arabia.
“The treatment is for patients with ‘non-small cell’ cancer that has a specific type of mutation, called Egfr, which is the most common form of lung cancer affecting approximately 10-25% of patients in the United States. States”, explains Blanchard, who participated in this international clinical trial in Europe, and 30 to 40% in Asia.
Clinical trial in 20 countries
The clinical trial was launched in 20 countries for a period of five years, during which patients who were treated for early-stage lung cancer and who underwent initial surgery to completely remove the tumor, with or without chemotherapy, took a simple tablet called “Osimertinib” daily for three years. .
These once-daily oral tablets reduced their risk of death by 51% compared to placebo. Additionally, 88% of patients treated with osimertinib were still alive after five years, compared with 78% of patients treated with an alternative drug. “, explains Blanchard, who considers it important to tell the patient with the EGFR mutation, after five years, that he is cured of lung cancer “because despite the surgery to remove the tumor, unfortunately, the risk of recurrence remains high. account for about 60 or 70 percent of lung cancer cases that come back.”
According to the European Medicines Agency, this medicine acts on a gene called EGFR which is often overactive in lung cancer cells, causing the cancer cells to grow out of control. And osimertinib blocks EGFR activity, which helps reduce the growth and spread of cancer.”
And the “AstraZeneca” laboratory specifies in a press release that “the drug has already been used by nearly 700,000 patients worldwide, and that it is authorized as monotherapy in the United States, China, Japan and the European Union”.
On the other hand, a thoracic oncologist from the Gustav Rossi Foundation, currently in Chicago, points out that “although this drug has been used for years in the advanced stages of lung cancer, what is new today is that this treatment will also be approved for patients who have undergone lung surgery as a preventive treatment and to aid in their recovery.
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