Trial results from a global study has shown that taking the drug Osimertinib once a day by the patient after tumor removal surgery has halved people’s risk of dying from a common lung cancer.
The research, published recently in The New England Journal of Medicine, found that taking the drug osimertinib after surgery dramatically reduced the risk of patients dying by 51 per cent. The researchers randomly assigned eligible patients in a 1:1 ratio to receive osimertinib (80 mg once daily) or placebo until disease recurrence was observed. Of 682 patients who underwent randomisation, 339 received osimertinib also known as Tagrisso and made by AstraZeneca, and 343 received placebo. In the primary analysis population, an estimated 85 per cent of patients treated with osimertinib were alive at five years compared to 73 per cent on placebo, the researchers said.
In the overall trial population, an estimated 88 per cent of patients treated with osimertinib were alive at five years compared to 78 per cent on placebo, they said. The study found that osimertinib reduced the risk of death by 51 per cent compared to placebo in both primary analysis population, the researchers said. "These highly anticipated overall survival results, with 88 per cent of patients alive at five years, are a momentous achievement in the treatment of early-stage EGFR-mutated lung cancer," said principal investigator in the trial, Roy S. Herbst, Deputy Director and Chief of Medical Oncology at Yale Cancer Center and Smilow Cancer Hospital, US.
"These data underscore that adjuvant treatment with osimertinib provides patients with the best chance of long-term survival," Herbst said. Susan Galbraith, Executive Vice President, Oncology R&D, AstraZeneca, said osimertinib cut risk of death by more than half in adjuvant setting, further establishing this transformative medicine as backbone treatment for epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR)-mutated lung cancer.