A new drug to fight lung cancer and beyond, a very active and well tolerated molecule against those neoplasms that present the alteration of the 'Ret' oncogene responsible for tumor growth not only in the lung but also in the thyroid and in other neoplasms .
This is demonstrated by a phase 1/2 clinical study of Selpercatinib, a specific Ret inhibitor, in clinical development and so far approved only in the United States.
The data were presented for the first time in Italy at the Congress of Italian Medical Oncologists (Aiom) - currently underway in virtual mode - by Federico Cappuzzo, director of Medical Oncology 2 of the Regina Elena National Cancer Institute (IRE) .
The work involved patients with lung cancer who presented this biological alteration and shows how the drug is able to induce, in a high percentage of cases, the regression of the disease for a prolonged time.
"The study on Selpercatinib - explains Cappuzzo - shows that the response rate to the drug is over 80% for 'naive' patients, that is, who had not previously received any type of treatment.
In contrast, in patients previously treated with standard therapy, the response rate is 64%.
Results of great importance, which demonstrate that there is an important impact on the control of cancer by this molecular inhibitor ".
"When diagnosing lung cancer it is important to proceed immediately with the molecular characterization", adds Gennaro Ciliberto, scientific director of Ire.
The drug is not yet commercially available in Italy except in the context of clinical trials, but important steps forward have been made in this last year.
The first concerns the approval of the FDA, the US drug agency, for advanced lung and thyroid cancers.
Green light that is granted only when a drug under development offers greater benefits than the therapies already in use.