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A regimen of pre-surgical immunotherapy and chemotherapy followed by post-surgical immunotherapy significantly improved event-free survival (EFS) and pathologic complete response (pCR) rates compared to chemotherapy alone for patients with operable non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), according to results of a Phase III trial. The AEGEAN trial evaluated durvalumab given perioperatively, meaning therapy is given both before and after surgery. Participants on the trial received either pre-surgical (neoadjuvant) durvalumab and platinum-based chemotherapy followed by post-surgical (adjuvant) durvalumab or neoadjuvant placebo and chemotherapy followed by adjuvant placebo. Of the patients receiving perioperative durvalumab, 17.2% had a pCR compared to just 4.3% of...

Researchers are testing a drug against obesity and diabetes, and now a team reports that substance has a beneficial effect on mice with experimental lung cancer. The substance is the short-chain fatty acid propionate, which is naturally produced by bacteria in our gut. This new research study shows that treating mice with lung cancer with propionate can reduce the occurrence of metastases. The study also demonstrates a role for propionate in increasing the effectiveness of Cisplatin, a commonly used drug for lung cancer patients. One of these programs is called EMT (epithelial-mesenchymal transition), which existed even when we were still...

The FDA-approved lung cancer drug osimertinib (sold under the brand name Tagrisso) slashes the risk of death by 51% for certain patients whose cancer is caught early, according to new trial data. “This should be the new standard of care for these patients,” Nathan Pennell, co-director of the Cleveland Clinic Lung Cancer Program, who wasn’t involved in the drug’s development, said in a statement for the American Society of Clinical Oncology. The drug: Lung cancer is the second-most common cancer in the world, with 2.2 million new diagnoses every year. The vast majority fall into a category called “non-small cell...