Lung cancer treatment: UK researchers develop a drug that can kill a tumour when combined with chemotherapy

 Source: https://www.news9live.com/health/health-news

Scientists in the UK have recently developed a drug which can work wonders to treat an aggressive form of cancer. As per The Guardian, researchers at the Queen Mary University London said that the treatment can quadruple three-year survival rate and also increase average survival rate by 1.6 months. Experts further said that the new drug, which works by cutting off food supply to the tumour is a first of its type for mesothelioma – a type of lung cancer – in 20 years. Results of the study were published in JAMA Oncology journal.

What is mesothelioma?

Mesothelioma is a form of cancer that forms in the lungs and is often caused by exposure to asbestos at work. The deadly, aggressive form of tumour has one of the worst cancer survival rates in the world. Thousands of people are diagnosed with the disease every year. Experts at Queen Mary University of London carried out an international trial for the same across five countries – Italy, Taiwan, Australia and the UK. The team of researchers saw patients receive chemotherapy every three weeks till up to six cycles. Half of the participants were give ADI-PEG20 (pegargiminase), and other were offered placebo for two years.

The final analysis included 249 people with pleural mesothelioma, a disease that takes a toll on the lining of the lung – average age of 70 years. ATOMIC-meso trial was performed from 2017 till 2021 and patients involved in it were followed up for a year. Those who were given pegargiminase and chemotherapy survived for an average of 9.3 months as opposed to 7.7 years for people who were given chemotherapy and placebo. The average progression-free survival rate was 6.2 months with pegargiminase-chemotherapy.

In this trial, researchers noted that pegargiminase-based chemotherapy was well-tolerated with no new safety signal. This significantly increased the median overall survival rate by 1.6 months and quadrupled over 36 months. Researchers also said that this is the first successful combination of chemotherapy with a drug which targets cancer growth over a period of 20 years. The new drug worked by depleting arginine levels in the blood as tumour cells cannot manufacture the same on its own, thereby inhibiting cancer growth.

Researchers were also impressed to see how arginine starvation of cancer cells can work to stop the disease. The discovery was made in the early stages itself, and the same drug is now improving quality of life in mesothelioma patients.