New drug showing incredible results in treating lung cancer

WNDU.com ^ | 07/16/2015 | Maureen McFadden

[E. Pluribus Unum]

More than 200,000 people will be diagnosed with lung cancer this year and almost 160,000 people will die from it.

Now, a drug that is showing incredible results in treating lung cancer has doctors more hopeful than ever.

Dr. Amita Patnaik says, "It truly is a transformative treatment."

Those are not words Dr. Patnaik uses lightly, but a clinical trial for treating lung cancer with the drug Keytruda has shown remarkable results.

"How have you been feeling?" she asks her patient.

Abelardo Torres has gone from being wheelchair bound and on oxygen full time, to an almost full recovery. Before the trial began, doctors were preparing his wife.

"Why don't you take him to hospices?" Abelardo remembers them saying.

However, after a year and a half of being treated with Keytruda, the tumors on his lungs and liver are virtually gone.

Cancer suppresses the immune system, but Keytruda blocks communication between cancer cells and certain proteins, allowing the immune system to kick in.

Dr. Patnaik, the Associate Director of Clinical Research at the START Center, explains, "This allows for our bodies to essentially mount natural anti-tumor immunity against cancer."

Scans of Abelardo's lungs show that the tumor used to obscure the lung, but now, after Keytruda, the lung is clear and the tumor is gone.

"He's had about a 97% reduction in the extent of his tumor, so the future for him looks very optimistic," explains Dr. Patnaik.

This new drug has taken Abelardo from near death to hopeful and is giving doctors a new tool to fight lung cancer.

"It truly is something that will change the way we practice and think about cancer," beams Dr. Patnaik

The FDA has assigned a priority review designation to Keytruda as a treatment for patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer and a final decision is expected in October.

Late last year, the FDA approved the use of Keytruda for treating melanoma.

Data suggests Keytruda could also be used for treating triple negative breast cancer, bladder, and kidney cancer.

Tests on these cancers are currently underway.

[Nowhere Man]

I have a coworker with a husband who has or had small cell lung cancer. So far he is beating it and I think he’s been free of it for a couple of years but the radiation burned his esophagus so he had to get that operated on. So far, he is doing OK. I wish him and others well.

[virgil]

I think he’s one of the lucky ones. God bless him.