Patients facing aggressive ALK-positive lung cancer may gain meaningful extra years of life thanks to a newer targeted therapy. Medical experts are describing this drug as a landmark advancement in the fight against this disease. This summary reflects findings reported in a major daily publication.
Lorlatinib, developed by Pfizer, works by binding to the ALK protein on the surface of cancer cells, hindering their growth. In a pivotal efficacy study, 296 individuals with ALK-positive non-small cell lung cancer participated. All had a mutation in the ALK gene that is known to raise the risk of cancer spreading to the brain. At diagnosis, about one quarter of patients already show brain metastases.
Results showed that roughly six in ten patients who took Lorlatinib daily survived five years without their cancer progressing. By comparison, more than half of those treated with an alternate therapy experienced disease progression within about nine months. In essence, Lorlatinib appeared to extend progression-free survival for people with ALK-positive lung cancer more than any other available treatment in the study. The authors noted that it remains difficult to forecast exact overall survival because many participants continued to live without disease progression at the end of the study period.
Lorlatinib has been accessible to patients since 2020, but initially it was reserved for those who had exhausted all other treatment options. The program typically served fewer than 100 patients each year. The newer research could pave the way for broader use of this therapy, potentially benefiting a larger group of patients who are newly diagnosed or who have limited options nearby.
Separately, researchers have made advances aimed at tackling the root causes of pancreatic cancer, signaling progress across multiple fronts in cancer care.