Immunotherapy drug helps lung cancer patients live longer

Scientists have found that immunotherapy drug nivolumab, increased the survival people suffering from squamous-non-small cell lung cancer. On an average, the drug helped the patients live longer than those who received chemotherapy. Squamous non-small cell lung cancer accounts for 25 to 30 per cent of all lung malignancies.

Results also showed that after a year, the nivolumab group had nearly doubled the survival rate (42 per cent) of the chemotherapy patients (24 per cent). Julie Brahmer, MD, at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center, said that it was a major milestone in the 20 years she had been in practice, and the findings solidified immunotherapy as a treatment option in lung cancer.

Median overall survival of patients receiving nivolumab was 9.2 months, compared with six months for patients who received docetaxel. At one year, 57 patients (42 per cent) taking nivolumab were alive, compared with 33 patients (24 per cent) taking docetaxel.

Approximately 27 patients (20 per cent) receiving nivolumab responded to the drug, compared with 12 (8.8 per cent) who took docetaxel. The median disease-progression free survival was 3.5 months for those who took nivolumab and 2.8 months for docetaxel.

The researchers also reported that nivolumab reduced the relative risk of dying from lung cancer by 41 percent in those who took the immunotherapy drug, compared with those who took docetaxel. Furthermore, they said the most severe side effects occurred more often in patients taking docetaxel (55 per cent) than those taking nivolumab (6.9 per cent).

Patients on nivolumab experienced fatigue, decreased appetite, weakness, as well as colon, kidney or lung inflammation. Those taking docetaxel experienced hair loss, fatigue, nausea, diarrhea and low white blood cell count, which decreases patients' ability to fight infections.

Because immunotherapy drugs tend to be expensive, costing more than 100,000 dollars per year, per patient, Brahmer said there was even more urgency to find out which patients were more likely to benefit. This includes determining whether the drugs should be used earlier on in cancer treatment, finding biomarkers to predict response, and combining immunotherapy with other treatments. (The study is published in the New England Journal of Medicine)