The new combination of drugs stopped the progression of lung cancer for almost two years

Fresh according to a British study, a new drug combination stopped the progression of lung cancer for more than 40 percent longer than the treatment currently in use, reports the British newspaper The Guardian.

Lung cancer patients were treated in the study with a combination of amivantamab and lazertinib. The treatment stopped the progression of the cancer for an average of 23.7 months, i.e. almost two years.

Currently, a drug called osimertinib is used in the treatment of lung cancer, which stopped the progression of the cancer for an average of 16.6 months in the study.

The US Food and Drug Administration FDA approved the new combination in August. The doctors involved in the study hope that the treatment would be available in the future also in the UK’s public health care, the NHS.

Research doctors according to the drug combination is an example of precision medicine.

In precision medicine the aim is to develop individual treatments, for example suitable for the patient’s inheritance.

“A better understanding of the biological causes of lung cancer has guided the development of targeted treatments. It’s amazing to see the new combination keep the cancer under control longer than osimertinib, which was also a breakthrough just a few years ago,” the study’s principal investigator Martin Forster states according to The Guardian.

A little over 1,000 patients from different parts of the world participated in the study, which was carried out between 2020 and 2022. Each had advanced non-small cell lung cancer, the most common form of the disease.

All participants also had a mutation in the epidermal growth factor receptor gene, which is found in up to a quarter of lung cancers worldwide, according to The Guardian.

Most of the study participants experienced some side effects. The most common side effects were rash, infection and blood clot.