A daily pill could cut lung cancer deaths in half, new study shows
Lung cancer accounts for about 1.8 million deaths per year globally. Deposit Photos A once-daily pill cut the risk of death in half for a subset of patients with early-stage lung cancer who had undergone surgery. The results of a new clinical trial were presented on June 4 at the American Society of Clinical Oncology’s annual meeting and were published in the New England Journal of Medicine. [Related: Poor lung cancer screening guidelines miss too many African American smokers.] The pill named osimertinib and sold under the brand name Tagrisso is manufactured by drugmaker AstraZeneca, who funded the study. The pill is directed at a specific receptor that helps cancer cells grow. The study included a 682-patient trial that included patients diagnosed with non-small cell lung cancer, which is one of two main types...