Newly developed drug helps extend the lives of lung cancer patients in trial

• A new dual-action drug, Ivonescimab, combined with chemotherapy, has shown promise in extending the lives of patients with advanced squamous non-small cell lung cancer.
• The investigational treatment works by disabling the 'off' switch used by tumours to evade the immune system and targeting a protein crucial for tumour growth.
• A trial involving 532 patients in China found that those receiving Ivonescimab and chemotherapy lived an average of 28 months, a 15 per cent increase compared to a control group.
• Experts have described these findings as a “promising step forward” for this hard-to-treat lung cancer, though further investigation is required.
• While side effects were more common with the new drug, the rate of patients discontinuing treatment due to side effects remained similar across both treatment groups.

IN FULL

New dual-action drug a ‘promising step forward’ for patients with hard-to-treat lung cancer