Immunotherapy improves the survival prospects of patients with lung cancer

CHICAGO – An immunotherapy treatment has significantly increased the survival rates of patients with advanced lung cancer, according to the results of a clinical trial cited Saturday by the researchers.

Nearly 25% of patients who received the drug pembrolizumab and never received chemotherapy were alive after five years, said the study presented at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology.

The figure has fallen to just over 15% for patients who have already received chemotherapy.

"The uniformly negative perspective that has been badociated with the diagnosis of advanced non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is certainly more appropriate," said lead author Edward Garon, an badociate professor at the University of Toronto. 39; UCLA.

The five-year survival rate was 5.5% in the pre-immunotherapy period.

Unlike chemotherapy, immunotherapy involves using the body's immune system to fight diseases.

In this case, the drug works by blocking the immune system, a protein called PD-1, which then allows T cells to fight cancer to attack faster and more efficiently.

"I describe it as a kind of thermostat change, in terms of the immune system's willingness to tolerate something versus rejecting it," Garon told AFP.

David Graham, an oncologist at the Levine Cancer Institute in Charlotte, North Carolina, who did not participate in the study, said, "It's really remarkable that for more patients than ever, we no longer need to count survival in months.

"However, we still have a long way to go to improve outcomes for all NSCLC patients."

According to Garon, the trial has proven that there are patient groups "that have long-term survival prospects, and this is changing the way we talk about the disease to our patients."

In the future, his team would like to identify other biomarkers to target in order to further improve survival rates.

"I think we all hope that these are the first days of immunotherapy," he told AFP.

"But I think that indicates that even in those early days, there are clear examples of difficult diseases where we can actually transform the management of these diseases."