Two new cancer pills show ‘unprecedented’ results in boosting survival rates and preventing recurrence

health

By Melissa Rudy, FOX News

June 7, 2023 | 2:32 PM

At the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) annual meeting in Chicago this week, potentially “practice-changing” results from two new anticancer drug studies were presented.

For lung cancer patients, taking a drug called osimertinib in pill form once a day has been shown to reduce the risk of death by more than 50% in a long-term international study.

Another study found that for breast cancer patients, a new drug called ribociclib significantly improved survival and prevented recurrence.

“Targeted therapies have been a major advance in the treatment of deadly cancers,” Dr. Mark Siegel, professor of medicine at New York University Langone Medical Center, told Fox News Digital.

“Osimertinib targets abnormal proteins on the surface of some cancers (in this case, the lung) and destroys them,” he explained. “Ribociclib targets abnormal growth hormone in breast cancer and is used early in the treatment process to improve survival.”

Using these targeted therapies before recurrence directly translates into improved survival, Siegel added.

New drug cuts lung cancer deaths in half, study finds

Lung cancer accounts for the majority of lung cancer deaths in both men and women in the United States, with 238,340 new cases expected in 2023, according to the American Cancer Society.

To reduce those numbers, Dr. Roy Herbst, deputy director of the Yale Cancer Center in New Haven, Connecticut, is leading a trial to test the effectiveness of a drug called osimertinib, also known as Tagrisso, made by AstraZeneca. bottom.

The study, published June 4 in The New England Journal of Medicine, included patients diagnosed with non-small cell lung cancer.

This very common type of lung cancer tends to come back when diagnosed late, according to a press release posted on the Yale University School of Medicine website.

“ADAURA[study name]used osimertinib in the setting of lung cancer where patients had already undergone surgery, and the results were excellent,” Herbst said in a release. “We are introducing this effective drug therapy in the early stages of the disease.”

The researchers analyzed patients who had already had surgery to remove the cancer. The results showed “prolonged disease-free survival” and reduced tumor spread compared to the placebo group.

Of a total of 682 patients, 88% of those who took osimertinib after surgery survived the next five years, compared with 78% of those who took placebo, the press release stated.

Overall, mortality was 51% lower in those taking the drug.

Higher survival rates were seen regardless of whether patients received chemotherapy.

“If you treat cancer early, you can prevent it from spreading to the brain, liver, and bone,” says Herbst. “This trial took advantage of the efficacy of osimertinib and showed that early use had a truly staggering effect on survival.”

“This is a habit changer and can help prolong the lives of lung cancer patients,” he added.

Dr. Suresh Nair, principal physician at the Lehigh Valley Topper Cancer Institute in Allentown, Pennsylvania, reviewed the study and called it “a breakthrough using targeted genomic therapy.”

“This tablet disables a key growth factor found in 10-15% of resected non-small cell lung cancers with EGFR (epidermal growth factor receptor) mutations in the US,” he told Fox News Digital. rice field.

“This led to an unprecedented and honestly surprising 88% five-year survival rate for these lung cancer patients, which is a significant improvement from the 78% seen with placebo,” said Nair. rice field.

“There is no denying that this drug had a strong effect in preventing metastasis to the brain and other parts of the body.”

The results of this decades-long study are particularly important for several categories of patients who are more likely to have this type of mutation in lung cancer, including women, young people, people of Asian descent, and nonsmokers, Nair said. said.

“Interestingly, two-thirds of the patients in the trial were women and nonsmokers, both of which are unusual for large phase III lung cancer studies,” he noted.

Osimertinib has been approved by the FDA for this purpose in the United States since December 2020, following previous trials that showed encouraging results, Naia said.

“Now oncologists can prescribe this drug for three years, giving us even more confidence that it can improve survival to a high level,” he added.

Breast cancer drug turned out to reduce recurrence by a quarter

Breast cancer accounts for about 30% of all new cancers in women each year.

About 297,790 women are expected to be diagnosed with the disease in 2023, and 43,700 will die, according to the American Cancer Society.

Researchers at UCLA Johnson Comprehensive Cancer Center in Los Angeles, California, say a new targeted therapy called ribociclib, also known as quiscari, has the potential to prolong survival and reduce the chance of recurrence in HR-positive, HER2-negative women. I think there is a gender. early breast cancer.

This type of cancer recurs in about one-third of Stage II patients who receive standard treatment, and more than half of Stage III patients, the study authors said, according to an ASCO press release.

When this type of cancer comes back, it is usually more advanced and aggressive.

At this week’s ASCO conference, researchers showed that in a late-stage study, ribociclib reduced the chances of breast cancer returning by 25% when used in combination with standard hormone therapy after conventional treatments such as surgery, chemotherapy and radiation. .

Ribociclib targets the proteins CDK4 and CDK6 that promote breast cancer cell proliferation.

The study, called NATALEE, reportedly included 5,101 participants with stage IIA, IIB, or III HR-positive, HER2-negative breast cancer who received either ribociclib plus hormone therapy or hormone therapy alone. randomly assigned to.

“The addition of ribociclib to hormone therapy significantly improved iDFS (invasive disease-free survival),” the press release states. “The 3-year iDFS rate was 90.4% in the ribociclib arm versus 87.1% in the hormone therapy alone arm.”

“Overall, the addition of ribociclib reduced the risk of relapse by 25%.”

Ribociclib is already approved in the US and UK to treat breast cancer that has already metastasized, but new research suggests it may be effective if used early. .

“These breakthrough results will fundamentally change the treatment of patients with stage II and III HR+/HER2- early breast cancer, who need new, well-tolerated options to prevent their cancer from recurring. It will,” said lead author Dennis J. Slamon. , MD, director of the Revlon/UCLA Women’s Cancer Research Program at UCLA Johnson Comprehensive Cancer Center in Los Angeles, Calif., said in a press release from Novartis, the maker of Kiscali.

“Addressing unmet needs across such a broad patient population could streamline treatment decisions for healthcare providers and protect more at-risk patients from cancer without disrupting their daily lives. There is a possibility.”

Dr. Nathan Goodyear, Physician and Medical Director of Brio Medical, Scottsdale, Arizona, has practiced integrative medicine since 2006. Although he was not involved in the study, he felt the results were consistent with his expectations.

He believes ribociclib “is the next of the currently available targeted therapeutic approaches and is part of a paradigm shift that will transform medicine from one-size-fits-all to a personalized one,” Fox News said. told to Digital.

Goodyear said a targeted precision-based approach to cancer treatment would likely improve treatment precision.

“The ultimate goal is to increase overall efficacy and reduce side effects.”

90% of cancer deaths are due to metastasis (metastasis to other parts of the body), Dr. Goodyear points out, “Any treatment that prevents metastasis is a treatment that reduces morbidity and mortality.” bottom.

By showing improvement in disease-free status after three years, the study emphasized the benefits of “treatment stacking” to improve overall survival and reduce relapses, he said.