Amgen’s Lumakras pill reduced the risk of disease progression in patients with advanced lung cancer by 34% compared with chemotherapy in a clinical trial, the company said on Sunday.
There was no significant difference in overall survival between the two treatments in the confirmatory study required by U.S. regulators as a condition of accelerated approval for Lumakras. But Amgen said the trial was not designed to detect a survival difference.
The company is also testing whether the drug could be effective against lung cancer earlier in the disease, and said last month a small study of Lumakras combined with immunotherapy found high rates of liver toxicity and that further study was needed. Read more here.
Study: How Air Pollution May Trigger Lung Cancer
Scientists have long known that air pollution can be linked with an increased risk of lung cancer in people who never smoked, but new research describes one mechanism that might help explain how.
The findings, presented Saturday at the European Society for Medical Oncology Presidential Symposium in Paris, suggest that air pollution can trigger lung cancer in people with no history of smoking because some air pollutant particles may promote changes in cells in the airways.
In particular, more exposure to airborne particulate matter or particle pollution — at 2.5 micrometers in diameter or smaller — can drive rapid changes in airway cells that have mutations in a gene called EGFR, which are seen in about half of people with lung cancer who have never smoked, and another gene linked to lung cancer called KRAS, according to the research, conducted by scientists at the Francis Crick Institute in London and other institutions around the world. Read more here.
Another Option to Treatment Lung Cancer?
Merck’s Keytruda has long established itself as the standard of care in newly diagnosed non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). But now, Roche aims to carve out a market for Tecentriq by targeting a neglected group of patients.
The unique market Roche has spotted covers patients with advanced NSCLC who cannot tolerate platinum-based chemotherapy. In these patients, Tecentriq monotherapy cut the risk of death by 22% against chemo, according to data from the phase 3 IPSOS trial presented at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) congress 2022. Read more here.
