Immune-Based Drug Shows Potential Against Another Form of Lung Cancer
Immune-Based Drug Shows Potential Against Another Form of Lung Cancer
By Dennis Thompson
HealthDay Reporter
SUNDAY, May 31, 2015 (HealthDay News) -- Another study finds that a new immune system-focused drug, called nivolumab, may help treat a common form of lung cancer.
On Saturday, a study presented at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology in Chicago found that nivolumab cut patients' risk of death from non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) -- the most common form of the disease -- by 27 percent, compared with patients who received an older drug called docetaxel.
Now, a second study to be presented Sunday at the meeting finds nivolumab also boosted one-year survival for patients with a subset of NSCLC, called squamous cell NSCLC. That study is being published simultaneously in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Forty-two percent of people with squamous cell NSCLC who got nivolumab were still alive one year later, compared to 24 percent of those who got docetaxel, according to a team led by Dr. Julie Brahmer at the Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore.
The study tracked outcomes for 272 people with advanced, squamous cell NSCLC whose disease had progressed despite receiving standard first-line chemotherapy. Some of the study group got nivolumab while others received docetaxel.
Patients getting nivolumab appeared to benefit in terms of fewer side effects as well, the researchers said. Serious treatment-related side effects "were reported in 7 percent of the patients in the nivolumab group as compared with 55 percent of those in the docetaxel group," the study authors wrote.
Nivolumab -- marketed as Opdivo -- primarily helps patients whose tumor cells carry a trait that allows their cancer to avoid detection by the immune system, the researchers explained.
In the study on non-small cell lung cancer presented at the ASCO meeting on Saturday, nivolumab reduced patients' risk of death from the disease by 27 percent compared with patients who received docetaxel, said a team led by Dr. Luis Paz-Ares, a professor of medicine at Hospital Universitario 12 de Octubre in Madrid, Spain.
Overall median survival was 12.2 months in the nivolumab group compared to 9.4 months in the docetaxel group, Paz-Ares' team reported.
HealthDay Reporter
SUNDAY, May 31, 2015 (HealthDay News) -- Another study finds that a new immune system-focused drug, called nivolumab, may help treat a common form of lung cancer.
On Saturday, a study presented at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology in Chicago found that nivolumab cut patients' risk of death from non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) -- the most common form of the disease -- by 27 percent, compared with patients who received an older drug called docetaxel.
Now, a second study to be presented Sunday at the meeting finds nivolumab also boosted one-year survival for patients with a subset of NSCLC, called squamous cell NSCLC. That study is being published simultaneously in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Forty-two percent of people with squamous cell NSCLC who got nivolumab were still alive one year later, compared to 24 percent of those who got docetaxel, according to a team led by Dr. Julie Brahmer at the Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore.
The study tracked outcomes for 272 people with advanced, squamous cell NSCLC whose disease had progressed despite receiving standard first-line chemotherapy. Some of the study group got nivolumab while others received docetaxel.
Patients getting nivolumab appeared to benefit in terms of fewer side effects as well, the researchers said. Serious treatment-related side effects "were reported in 7 percent of the patients in the nivolumab group as compared with 55 percent of those in the docetaxel group," the study authors wrote.
Nivolumab -- marketed as Opdivo -- primarily helps patients whose tumor cells carry a trait that allows their cancer to avoid detection by the immune system, the researchers explained.
In the study on non-small cell lung cancer presented at the ASCO meeting on Saturday, nivolumab reduced patients' risk of death from the disease by 27 percent compared with patients who received docetaxel, said a team led by Dr. Luis Paz-Ares, a professor of medicine at Hospital Universitario 12 de Octubre in Madrid, Spain.
Overall median survival was 12.2 months in the nivolumab group compared to 9.4 months in the docetaxel group, Paz-Ares' team reported.