Combining two existing drug can prevent lung cancer?

An exciting recent research is suggesting that a novel treatment combining two currently existing and approved drugs might effectively target almost 85 percent of present lung cancers. With less side effects than traditional chemotherapy, the novel treatment is set to go into a phase 2 human clinical trial within 12 months.

Current work has been done to reveal the role of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) in lung cancers. Novel drugs which inhibit EGFR have been developed, also approved for use, to treat non-small cell lung cancers (NSCLCs) but they have frustratingly shown limited efficacy, often only working 10 to 15 percent of the time.

There has been a huge attempt during the last several years to block EGFR as a treatment for lung cancer; however this treatment simply works in a minor subset of patients. The cancer fights back through a bypass pathway.

Tracking along also blocking that "bypass pathway" has been important to the novel research. The researchers found that as EGFR is blocked, levels of another protein called Tumor Necrosis Factor (TNF) rise. Consequently it appeared reasonable to explore whether EGFR inhibitors would be further efficient in treating lung cancer when combined with TNF inhibitors.

During an animal study the researchers observed that non-small cell lung cancers had been much more sensitive to EGFR inhibitors as TNF was blocked. In these early tests the researchers utilized a drug called thalidomide because the primary TNF inhibitor. As thalidomide certainly has a controversial history, it has recently been experiencing novel evaluation as a effective anti-cancer agent.

As both drugs are as of now approved for human use by the FDA it is trusted a phase 2 human clinical trial of the novel dual-drug treatment can take place fast-tracked. The future clinical trial will not only include lung cancer patients but also persons with glioblastomas, another cancer known to be linked with EGFR.

Non-small cell lung cancers comprise approximately 85 percent of all lung cancers, making this novel discovery. If established effective in human trials, this novel combination of pre-existing drugs would basically modify how lung cancers are treated.

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