Immunotherapy drug shows success in treating advanced lung cancer

UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center Dr. Edward Garon In what is thought to be the largest study to date using immunotherapy to treat lung cancer, UCLA researchers have found that the drug pembrolizumab (Keytruda), recently approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to treat some melanoma patients, is safe and effective in arresting tumor growth in people with advanced non-small cell lung cancer. Approximately 25 percent of patients’ tumors had high levels of the protein PD-L1, and the study found that they were the people most likely to have the best outcomes. The research was the first validation of PD-L1 expression as a marker of how patients will respond to the drug. “These results have the potential to substantively change the way that lung cancer is treated,” said Dr. Edward Garon, a member of UCLA’s Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center and lead author of the study. “The effectiveness of pembrolizumab in treating patients with non-small cell lung cancer and the prolonged duration of their responses is quite exciting.” The study was published online in the New England Journal of Medicine April 19, coinciding with a presentation of the findings by Garon at the American Association for Cancer Research annual meeting. Pembrolizumab is an antibody that targets a protein expressed by immune cells called PD-1. In the body, PD-1 acts as an immune checkpoint inhibitor, turning down the immune system’s T cells that otherwise could attack cancer cells as...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news