SCIENTISTS think they have found the best lung cancer drug ever and say it could add years to the lives of patients dying from the disease.
Trials found lorlatinib stopped tumours in their tracks even if they had spread to the brain.
On average patients survived five years without their cancer getting worse, compared to just nine months on standard medication.
Most are still alive years after doctors expected them to die.
The drug, used to treat ALK-positive non-small cell lung cancer, is already available for a handful of specific patients through the NHS.
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Campaigners hope the “groundbreaking” results will see it become a lifeline for all of the 350 Brits who get this type of cancer each year.
Study author Dr Benjamin Solomon, from the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre in Melbourne, said: “The progression-free survival benefit is the longest ever reported in this type of cancer and, to our knowledge, of any targeted therapy in lung cancer to date.”
Dr David Spigel, from the American Society of Clinical Oncology, added: “These results are off the chart.
“We just haven’t seen results like that in oncology often, much less in non-small cell lung cancer.
“These are among the best results we’ve seen in advanced disease in any setting, it’s really a major step forward in lung cancer care.”
Non-small cell lung cancers account for just over half of lung tumours and about five per cent have a mutation in a gene called ALK – called ALK-positive cancers.
This type is more common in younger adults – a third of cases in under-40s – and non-smokers.
About a quarter of patients’ tumours spread to their brain before they are diagnosed.
Dr Solomon studied the effect of lorlatinib, also known as Lorviqua, on 296 patients with this cancer and compared it with an older drug called crizotinib.
After five years, 60 per cent of patients taking lorlatinib had not got any worse.
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The same was true of just eight per cent of people on the standard drug – meaning the cancer spread in nine out of 10 of those cases.
Lorlatinib also stopped cancer spreading to the brain in almost all patients, while the other group saw theirs spread in an average of 16 months.
Professor Charles Swanton, chief doctor at Cancer Research UK, said the results were “groundbreaking” and added: “This study could present us with an effective way of stopping cancer in its tracks and preventing it from spreading to the brain.”
Lorlatinib is used on the NHS already but patient charities hope the new results will bump it up so everyone with this type of cancer can get it.
Debra Montague, of ALK Positive Lung Cancer UK, said: “The drug is not yet in use for first line treatment in England but hopefully it will get approval after these results.
“ALK-positive lung cancer usually affects patients who have never smoked and this drug raises the prospect of extending lives by many years."