A Spanish team has taken a giant step forward in hopeful cancer treatment: chemoimmunotherapy
Lung cancer is the fourth leading cause of death in the world and is the most lethal cancer in Spain. In 2020 alone, 22,000 Spaniards lost their lives because of it. A new treatment, based on the combination of chemotherapy and immunotherapy, has offered positive results in clinical trials. Behind these trials are oncologists and patients from more than twenty Spanish hospitals.
Results of the clinical trial.
The group of researchers in charge of the study has verified an improvement in the survival expectations of lung cancer patients treated with this combination of drugs. Specifically, they observed the disappearance of the disease in 36% of the cases with remissions in around 60% of the cases. 93% of patients were eligible for surgery after receiving treatment, a figure that exceeds the usual percentage of 69%.
The clinical trial was carried out in patients in the early stages of the disease, specifically in stage IIIA. This is the most advanced stage within the initial phases of the disease, prior to metastasis, which means that the tumor is still localized.
What is chemoimmunotherapy?
The treatment that the team has been analyzing for the last three years is called chemoimmunotherapy, a treatment that combines chemo- and immunotherapy in specific doses. It is one of the great promises in the fight against this disease. While chemotherapy attacks cancer cells, immunotherapy strengthens the immune system so that it better fights the disease. This strategy was proposed more than a decade ago and now, thanks to these clinical trials, we know that it has the ability to improve the chances of healing of lung cancer patients in their early stages.
This strategy to tackle the disease is also combined with surgery. In the clinical trial, chemoimmunotherapy was used to shrink or eliminate tumors before their operation. In the words of Mariano Provencio collected by RTVE, who has led the immunotherapy study “it is not just another drug, it is a new way of treating because we are going to be able to operate on many more patients and make many more live”.
The NADIM II study.
Provencio is president of the Spanish Lung Cancer Group (GEPC) and an oncologist at the Puerta de Hierro Majadahonda University Hospital, in the Community of Madrid. The GEPC is precisely the promoter of this NADIM II study. The project is, explains the GEPC, a phase II trial of the use of this neoadjuvant therapy in patients with locally advanced and potentially resectable non-small cell lung cancer. Neoadjuvant refers to the fact that it is an adjuvant treatment of the main one (in this case, surgery) that is administered before it.
A phase II study.
The results that have been released and that Provencio will present at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology correspond to the three-year follow-up of the phase II participants in the trials of this treatment. They have also been featured in an article in the magazine Journal of Clinical Oncology. The second phase of the study implies that the safety of the treatment had already been tested and its main side effects had been described. In this phase II the objective was to verify that the treatment is effective, with positive results. Phase III is under way and the GEPC hopes to have more than 200 participants to carry it out.
The fight against cancer is one of the great projects facing the scientific community today. It is unlikely that we will find a universal cure, it will be necessary to tackle the different types of cancer according to their characteristics and the stage of development in which they are found. Of course, prevention must also be key. Just as chemoimmunotherapy has been tested in patients in early stages of the disease, in recent months there has been encouraging news for patients in later stages, science is advancing and it is difficult to keep up. In any case, it is necessary to bear in mind that the development of treatments is a long process, and although in this case the efficacy has been demonstrated, there is still a long way to go before its implementation.