A recent clinical trial of a drug used for treating lung cancer has heralded “a remarkable advancement.” Lung cancer is one of the most dire causes of death relating to cancer across the globe.
A recent trial of the new anti-cancer drug has revealed that 60% of patients are still alive, and the cancer also didn’t spread to any other part of the body. The protein anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) plays a crucial role in regulating cell growth. It is produced by the ALK gene. In certain cancers, including non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), this gene can be rearranged. This leads to uncontrolled cancer growth and spread. NSCLC, one of the two main types of lung cancer (the other being small cell lung cancer), accounts for about 80% to 85% of lung cancer cases. Among these, ALK-positive tumors occur in approximately 3% to 5% of cases. ALK-positive NSCLC tends to be more aggressive and is often found in younger individuals with little to no smoking history. Lorlatinib is a third-generation ALK inhibitor. It is the latest in a class of drugs used as the standard first-line treatment for patients with ALK-positive NSCLC. A recent international clinical trial, led by the Peter MacCallum Cancer Center (Peter Mac) in Melbourne, Australia, evaluated the drug’s impact on long-term disease progression in patients with advanced ALK-positive NSCLC. The results were remarkable. In an interview with The Guardian, Peter Mac’s Professor Ben Solomon, the study’s lead and corresponding author, said, “To our knowledge, these results are unprecedented.” In a Phase III trial, 296 patients with previously untreated, advanced ALK-positive NSCLC were randomly assigned to receive either Lorlatinib or crizotinib (sold as Xalkori), a first-generation ALK inhibitor.
Lorlatinib is administered as a once-daily tablet, while crizotinib is taken twice daily. The primary endpoint of the study was progression-free survival, with key secondary endpoints including overall survival and brain metastasis.
Five years post-treatment, 60% of patients receiving Lorlatinib remained alive without signs of disease progression, compared to only 8% of those on crizotinib.
