A new study co-led by investigators at UCLA has found a drug can reduce the risk of re-acquiring lung cancer, it was announced Sunday.
Researchers at UCLA’s Health Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center discovered that cancer drug selpercatinib “can significantly reduce the risk of lung cancer returning in patients with a rare genetic subtype of early-stage non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), potentially offering a new treatment option to help keep the disease from coming back after standard therapy,” according to the university.
“The international phase 3 clinical trial, called LIBRETTO-432, found that after two years, 92% of patients with stage II-IIIA RET fusion-positive NSCLC who received selpercatinib after standard treatment were alive without their cancer returning … compared with 61% of patients who received a placebo,” the university stated. “Overall, the treatment reduced the risk of cancer recurrence or death by 83%.”
Dr. Jonathan Goldman, Health Sciences clinical professor in the Department of Medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA shared the results during the Plenary Session at the American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting, which were also published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
“Even when patients with early-stage RET-positive lung cancer undergo surgery and other standard treatments with curative intent, many still face the possibility that their cancer will return,” Goldman said. “These findings show that a targeted therapy drug can dramatically reduce that risk and may represent an important new treatment approach for patients with this rare subtype of lung cancer.”
RET fusion-positive lung cancer was described as a rare subtype of NSCLC caused by abnormal rearrangements in the RET gene. It is said to occur in less than 2% of patients with the disease. According to the university, some patients diagnosed at an early stage can be treated with surgery, radiation and chemotherapy, but for many patients the disease returns, frequently in more advanced forms.
“Selpercatinib is a targeted therapy designed to specifically block RET-driven cancer growth,” the university stated. “The drug is already approved for patients with advanced or metastatic RET-altered cancers and has shown strong and durable responses in previous studies involving later-stage disease.
“LIBRETTO-432 is the first randomized study to evaluate whether the drug can also help patients with earlier-stage RET-positive lung cancer after surgery or other definitive treatment, an area where there is currently no approved adjuvant targeted therapy.”
Goldman said the most common significant side effects involved elevations in liver enzymes, which could be managed. “These results have the potential to change clinical practice for patients with early-stage RET-positive lung cancer,” he said. “They also underscore the importance of early comprehensive biomarker testing to help match patients with targeted therapies that can dramatically reduce the risk of recurrence. For patients, this represents a new layer of protection after surgery and a step closer to preventing the disease from returning altogether.”
The researchers said they intend to continue following patients in the study to gain a greater understanding of the long-term benefits of selpercatinib, including to determine if the treatment improves overall survival. Following up will also help them learn more about how a variety of different groups of patients respond to the therapy.