New treatment could cut lung cancer deaths by a quarter
The study, published in the Lancet, found that using an existing immunotherapy drug called atezolizumab, together with a chemotherapy drug, reduced the risk of 'disease progression or death by 46 per cent'.
The research team, led by the Complutense University of Madrid in Spain, found that those on both drugs were 46 per cent less likely to see their disease progress and 27 per cent less likely to die during the typical follow-up period of 15 months.
The median survival time increased from 10.6 months to 13.2 months for those using the combined treatment.
Treatment options for small cell lung cancer are severely limited because of its aggressive nature, which means patients have 'the worst outcomes of almost any cancer'.
However, the new 'maintenance treatment' combining two drugs already available on the NHS could give patients extra months of life.
The therapy is being urgently reviewed in the US and considered in Europe, but not yet in the UK.
Small cell lung cancer makes up about 15 per cent of all lung cancer cases – accounting for about 7,500 new cases a year in the UK – and is particularly common among smokers. About six million adults smoke, according to the latest estimates.
This form of lung cancer is often diagnosed once it has spread to other areas making it harder to treat and some 80 per cent of people who receive a diagnosis will die within two years.
Treatment is often limited to helping people to live as long, and as well, as possible.
Experts enrolled 660 patients with the advanced lung cancer from 93 sites around the world including in the UK for the IMforte study.
Patients underwent four rounds of treatment with immunotherapy and chemotherapy but were then split into two groups for 'maintenance treatment'.
They were split evenly between just receiving atezolizumab and receiving both that drug and a type of chemotherapy called lurbinectedin.
The results were presented at this year's American Society of Clinical Oncology in Chicago.
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