There’ve been two major studies recently that contain some encouraging news for many people with lung cancer – and both involve immunotherapy.
In one study, patients who received Keytruda lived four to eight months longer than those who received chemotherapy alone. Keytruda is already FDA-approved for people with high levels of an important mutation (PD-L1), but this study showed it also was effective for those with lower levels of the mutation – which accounts for about two- thirds of people with this kind of lung cancer.
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In another lung cancer study of the immunotherapy drug Tecentriq, patients also saw improvements, although in this case the drug produced more months without worsening of the disease, rather than actual better survival. Tecentriq combined with chemotherapy doubled the number of months that patients lived free of a cancer that worsened compared to chemotherapy alone. But adding the immunotherapy to chemotherapy did cause more severe side effects.
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