Atezolizumab is an immununotherapy drug which has shown great promise in its phase 3 clinical trial. Any cancer drug story that has a silver lining is worthy of an article at this, the Florida Lung, Asthma and Sleep Specialists’ Blog.
New immunology Secrets are Being Revealed in Drug Trials.
You might ask what the silver lining is in Atezolizumab. Advocates of the recent study will quickly explain that the drug fights cancer, as does chemotherapy, but it also minimizes side effects.
The Lancet Journal reported the four month survival record. However, The big story inside the research story was that patients with advanced non-small-cell-lung cancer not only enjoyed an extra four months of life, but they survived without as many side effects as those patients who used traditional chemotherapy drugs. Here at Florida Lung, Asthma and Sleep Specialists, we call that not only more time to live, but more quality in the life.
Meet the Atezolizumab Patients
“Atezolizumab just completed its phase 3 clinical trial, which hosted 1225 advanced non-small-cell lung cancer patients who have no more treatment options.
But this study used an early analysis of the first 850 patients from the trial.”
Dr Achim Rittmeyer, lead author of the new study reminded us that “Lung cancer is the most common cancer affecting 1.8 million people each year worldwide.”
He added, “It is also the leading cause of cancer death worldwide and survival remains stubbornly low.”
Atezolizumab: Meet The Method of the Drug Trial
Immunotherapy : A New Approach to Cancer
Half of the group used atezolizumab. The other half opted for the traditional treatment of docetaxel chemotherapy.
Docetaxel is the cutting edge standard chemotherapy treatment for non-small-cell-lung cancer patients.
How Atezolizumab Works:
Dr Achim Rittmeyer, lead author,University Goettingen, Germany, stated “Atezolizumab reinvigorates patients’ immune systems against cancer, and our trial has shown that this has significant results for their survival.”
He proudly announced, Atezolizumab is “a drug that blocks the programmed death ligand 1 (PD-L1) protein. The patients taking it survived for an average of 13.8 months, compared with 9.6 months for those on chemotherapy.”
Life With a Minimum of Side Effects
Atezolizumab not only gave the patients longer life, but the patients suffered fewer side effects from the drug. Statistics validated only 14.8% (90 of 609) of those given the Atezolizumab suffered grade three or four side effects.
Research scientists compared that number with the 42.7% (247 of 578) who suffered grade three or four side effects with their chemotherapy.
In both groups there were patients who withdrew from their treatments because of side effects.
1. 46 of 609, (7.6%) of the patients given atezolizumab gave up the treatment due to side effects.
2. Many more patients stopped their chemotherapy treatment in the standard treatment group. 108 of 578 patients, (18.7%) of those on chemotherapy quit because of the side effects.
Points To Ponder
The largest advances in cancer treatment have been made with immunotherapies that focus on the PD-L1 and the PD-1 pathway.
1. During the trial, the researchers also studied the “amount of PD-L1 protein on the patients’ cancer and immune cells and how long patients survived for on each treatment.”
2. They discovered the drug worked best for patients with the highest levels of the PD-L1 protein on their cells. The treatment more than doubled the survival of patients compared with those given chemotherapy (20.5 months compared with 8.9 months overall survival)
3. The drug also increased survival for those with little to no levels of the protein by three and a half months (12.6 compared with 8.9 months overall survival).
Words of Praise to Encourage Scientists, Doctors and Patients
Dr David Gandara, senior author, UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center, USA, stated, “This is the first phase 3 trial of a PD-L1-directed immunotherapy in lung cancer. The fact that it improves survival in patients with all categories of PD-L1 expression is highly encouraging and adds to the already known benefits of immunotherapy in lung cancer.”
Deep readers can learn more about this amazing study in the Lancet Journal.
Professor Elisabeth Quoix, Hôpitaux Universitaires de Strasbourg, France, stated, “After decades of disappointments with non-specific vaccines or more recently tumor associated antigen specific vaccines, immunotherapy with antibodies that target the PD-L1 and PD-1 pathway have emerged as a major therapeutic breakthrough.”
She predicts we are getting closer to a “time in which chemotherapy will no more be the mainstay… of treatment of metastatic non-small-cell lung cancer.”
She and other scientists like her are anxiously awaiting more studies, more drug trials, so that we can unlock more of the mysteries of how Atezolizumab and other immunotherapy drugs should be utilized in treatment schedules.
Future studies might clarify ways to reduce costs and methods of combining different immunotherapies.
Here at Florida Lung, Asthma and Sleep Studies, we keep a watchful eye on new lung cancer research, and we bring you the latest research in articles such as this one.
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