CHICAGO — For the first time, a treatment that boosts the immune system greatly improved survival in people newly diagnosed with the most common form of lung cancer. The Keytruda combo also delayed the time until cancer worsened — an average of nine months versus five months for the chemo-only group. That’s a big difference for such an advanced cancer, said Dr. Alice Shaw, a Massachusetts General Hospital lung cancer expert and one of the conference leaders. THE COMPETITIONDr. Matthew Hellmann of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York led a study testing the Opdivo-Yervoy combo versus chemo in a slightly different group of newly diagnosed advanced lung cancer patients. The median time until cancer worsened was about 7 months on the immunotherapy drugs versus 5.5 months for chemo.

Source: National Post April 16, 2018 13:41 UTC