The research was released in Chicago during the largest annual conference of cancer experts, organized by the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO).
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Lung cancer is the deadliest, with around 1,8 million deaths each year worldwide.
The treatment presented this Sunday, osimertinib, marketed under the name Tagrisso and developed by the pharmaceutical group AstraZeneca, is aimed at those who suffer from so-called “non-small cell” cancer and who have a specific type of mutation.
These mutations (in what is called the epidermal growth factor receptor, or EGFR) affect 10% to 25% of lung cancer patients in the United States and Europe, and between 30% and 40% in Asia.
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The clinical trial involved around 680 people who were in the early stages of the disease (stages 1b to 3a), in more than 20 countries.
All had undergone surgery to remove the tumor. Then, half of the patients took the daily treatment and the other half received a placebo.
Taking the pill resulted in a 51% reduction in the risk of death for treated patients, compared to the group receiving the placebo.
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After five years, 88% of patients who received the treatment were still alive, compared with 78% of those who received the placebo.
These data are “impressive,” said Roy Herbst of Yale University, who presented the study in Chicago, in a press release.
The medicine helps “prevent the disease from spreading to the brain, liver and bones,” he added at a press conference.
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About a third of “non-small cell” cancer cases can be treated when detected, he said.
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“It's hard for me to say how important these results are,” commented Nathan Pennell, of the Cleveland Clinic Foundation and not involved in the study, during the press conference.
“We have entered the era of personalized therapies for patients in the early stages” of the disease, he said, and “we should be moving away from one-size-fits-all treatment,” that is, chemotherapy.
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Osimertinib has already been authorized in dozens of countries and has been administered to about 700.000 people, according to a press release from AstraZeneca.
Its approval in the United States in 2020 was based on previous data, which showed an improvement in patients' disease-free survival, that is, the time lived without cancer recurrence.
But not all doctors embraced the treatment and were awaiting data on overall survival presented on Sunday, explained Roy Herbst.
The oncologist emphasized the need to “evaluate patients” to determine whether they have the EGFR receptor mutation.
“Otherwise, we cannot use this new treatment,” he emphasized. Osimertinib, which acts on this receptor, can cause side effects such as intense fatigue, skin redness or diarrhea.
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