Through the use of new drug afatinib you can improve the symptoms of patients with non-small cell lung cancer.
At McGill University (Canada) were carried out two trials on the use of afatinib, a drug for patients with NSCLC, non-small cell lung cancer.
The medicine, taken orally, in Phase III clinical trials have proved very effective for patients with metastatic cancer, and in a phase II clinical trials has increased the survival of patients who had a mutation in the gene for EGFR, the epidermal growth factor receptor.
The experts, in Milan the 35th ESMO Congress (European Society for Medical Oncology), explained that the afatinib is the first drug that has shown a significant prolongation of survival in cases of NSCLC “tripling the period of progression-free survival disease compared with placebo, 3.3 months compared with just over a month.
In addition, the new molecule has improved, or at least reduced, cancer-related symptoms: breathing problems, shortness of breath and pain, “said researcher Vera Hirsch.
