An international team of researchers has found that selpercatinib, a drug that precisely targets cancers driven by mutations or alterations in the gene RET, was effective at shrinking tumours in patients with nonsmall cell lung cancer (NSCLC), with a majority of patients living for more than a year without disease progression. Activity was also observed in thyroid cancer, and the findings were recently published in two back to back papers in the high-impact factor journal, New England Journal of Medicine.
Non-small-cell lung cancer accounts for more than 80 percent of all lung cancers. Cases of lung cancer in people who have never smoked are usually non-small-cell lung cancer. The disease affects more women than men. Standard treatment for nonsmall-cell lung cancer is a combination of surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy, with no targeted therapy option. Patients with advanced non-small-cell lung cancer have poor prognosis with median overall survival rate of 12 months.