Traditional chemotherapy with immunotherapy against lung cancer

Traditional chemotherapy with immunotherapy against lung cancer

10 Sep 2015

Pembrolizumab, or pembro, an immunotherapy drug that unmasks cancer cells and allows the body's own immune system to help destroy tumors, appears to be safe in treating lung cancers, according to a study by Cancer Treatment Centers of America (CTCA) at Western Regional Medical Center (Western) in Goodyear, Arizona.

Combining traditional chemotherapy with immunotherapy

The 'PembroPlus' clinical trial was launched in January 2014 and it is a 1b/2 study  which combines more traditional chemotherapy drugs (gemcitabine, docetaxel, nab-paclitaxel, vinorelbine, irinotecan, and/or liposomal doxorubicin) with immunotherapy (pembrolizumab), activating the body's own immune system to improve upon results that may be achieved from chemotherapy alone.

CareAcross-ampoules

Findings are based on the updated results of 12 lung cancer patients receiving (at least) 1 prior line of therapy who enrolled in the clinical trial with pembro and irinotecan or gemcitabine with or without vinorelbine or docetaxel.

“A safe combination of therapies”

"We found that the combination of pembrolizumab and chemotherapies evaluated thus far - in patients with advanced small cell lung cancer (SCLC) and non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) - appears to be safe," said Dr. Glen Weiss, Director of Clinical Research and Medical Oncologist at CTCA at Western.

"We believe these studies and clinical trials that combine immunotherapy with chemotherapy are advancing efforts toward better clinical care and more positive outcomes for our patients at CTCA," said Dr. Vivek Khemka, Medical Oncologist, CTCA at Western and the WCLC study abstract's principal investigator and senior author.

 

Source: eCancer News

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