FDA approves drug that extends survival in the most common type of lung cancer

UCLA Dr. Edward Garon The Food and Drug Administration today approved a new drug to treat non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC), offering people new hope in fighting the disease. Lung cancer is expected to lead to more than 150,000 deaths in the United States this year alone, and NSCLC accounts for about 85 percent of all lung cancers. The drug, Cyramza (ramucirumab), was tested on more than 1,200 people with NSCLC whose cancer worsened during or after first-line chemotherapy. The research was conducted as part of a multi-year, Phase 3 clinical trial at UCLA and other centers in 26 countries on six continents. This is the first study in a decade to demonstrate a survival benefit in people with that type of lung cancer who had already received treatments. Cyramza is an antibody that targets the extracellular domain of VEGFR-2, an important protein in the formation of vessels that supply blood to cancer cells. Patients were given the experimental drug in combination with docetaxel, a clinically approved therapy that is considered the cornerstone of second-line treatment in advanced NSCLC, said Dr. Edward Garon, the study’s principal investigator and a researcher at the UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center. Results of the study were recently published by Garon and colleagues in The Lancet. The standard treatment regimen for people whose cancer worsens during or after initial therapy is chemotherapy with a single drug. This is a patient population for whom survival is typical...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news