- Home
-
Press releases
-
Media academy
- Lung Cancer
- Breast Cancer
- Ovarian Cancer
- Head & Neck Cancer
- Targeted Therapy
Federico Cappuzzo
Director, Oncology Operative Unit, Hospital of Livorno, Italy
Lung cancer is an aggressive disease with a very poor prognosis for patients. What we need in clinical practice is to improve the survival rates in our patients because unfortunately, even with the best strategies we can use in our patients, median survival of individuals with advanced disease is approximately 12 months.
During the last few years, we’ve had many new drugs become available, particularly the so called target agents, drugs that are able to block specific pathways in the disease, and therefore induce a dramatic regression of the tumour with minimal side effects for the patients. Certainly the possibility to personalise the treatment represents the major advance that we had in the last 10 years.
BIBW 2992 (compound code of Afatinib) is an irreversible double inhibitor able to block irreversible both receptors. Data presented from LUX 2 trial conducted on patients enrolled in the US and Asia showed the drug was able to induce dramatic reduction in a consistent proportion of cases with very prolonged disease stabilisation. The results represent very promising data and could really produce improvement of the outcome of patients with lung cancer.
Source for healthcare professionals: www.inoncology.com
* Nintedanib (BIBF 1120), afatinib (BIBW 2992) and volasertib (BI 6727) are investigational compounds. Their safety and efficacy have not yet been fully established.
