Patients with the most common type of lung cancer, non-small cell cancer, survive longer, according to a new study.
In recent years, death rates have dropped significantly, while two-year survival rates in the U.S. have increased. The improvements are mainly due to new targeted treatments, a study by the National Cancer Institute found.
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We found that mortality rates from the most common non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in 2013 fell sharply in the United States in 2013. If we look at these data and the time period we study, it correlates with different target group therapies that have been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, “said Nadia Howlader, Ph.D., of the Department of National Cancer Institute of Cancer Control and Population Sciences, told Fox News.
According to the study published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine, the researchers also discovered death rates for men with NSCLC fell each year by 6.3 percent in the period from 2013 to 2016.
The study looked at data for both non-small-cell lung cancer, which accounts for 76% of lung cancer diagnoses in the US, and small-cell lung cancer (SCLC), which accounts for 13% of lung cancer cases. In recent decades, treatments have become available that target genetic changes seen in some NSCLS tumors, such as therapies to help the immune system attack NSCLC, the researcher told Fox News.
“In 2012, NCCN [National Comprehensive Cancer Network] guideline recommended that patients with the most common type of lung cancer, NSCLC, should undergo testing to see if there is a presence for a particular mutation, known as the EGFR or ALK. Because of this recommendation, more patients were tested, and if they had these mutations, [the] most were possibly treated with these target group therapies, ”explained Howlader, who led the study.
The story here is that when it comes to lung cancer mortality in this country, we benefit from several recent drug approvals targeting this disease. Looking at what we have learned from this research, it is good for a continued reduction in mortality of lung cancer in the coming years, “Howlader told Fox News.
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In a news release, the authors stated that the two-year survival rate for men diagnosed with NSCLC improved from 26 percent in 2001 to 35 percent in 2014. A similar improvement was observed for women.
The researchers also found that deaths by NSCLC decreased even faster than decreasing incidence of NSCLC. Deaths by NSCLC among men decreased 3.2 percent annually from 2006 to 2013 and decreased by 6.3 percent from 2013 to 2016. The incidence rate also decreased 1.9 percent annually from 2001 to 2008 and 3.1 percent each year from 2008 to 2016.
The researchers attributed the improvement to clinicians performing genetic tests and using newly approved drugs to target genetic changes in tumors during that time period.
Unfortunately, there have been limited advances when it comes to treatment for SCLC, the study’s authors said. Contrary to the NSCLC’s findings, two-year survival rates for SCLC were largely unchanged. After all, the decline in deaths from SCLC corresponded to the decrease in incidence. The decline in incidence is largely due to smoking cessation, the authors said in the press release.
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Originally it was thought that screening for lung cancer explained the decreases in NSCLC mortality. However, the researchers stated that their findings suggest that screening rates for lung cancer remained low and stable, so it could not explain the decline in mortality. The rapid decline in deaths and incidence was largely due to a reduction in smoking and improved cancer genetic treatments, they said.
“The story here is that when it comes to lung cancer mortality in this country, we benefit from several recent drug approvals that target this disease. “Looking at what we’ve learned from this study, it’s good for a continued reduction in lung cancer mortality in the coming years,” Howlader told Fox News.
