According to the American Cancer Society, more than 1.5 million people will be diagnosed with lung cancer this year. August 1, 2021, is World Lung Cancer Day; a day dedicated to raising awareness of the risk factors for lung cancer and highlighting the importance of early detection and treatment advances. Researchers at Yale Cancer Center and Smilow Cancer Hospital are leaders in treatment breakthroughs, including two recent U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) lung cancer drug approvals, bringing hope to patients and their families.
Based on results of national clinical trials led by Roy S. Herbst, MD, PhD, Chief of Medical Oncology at Yale Cancer Center and Smilow Cancer Hospital and Associate Cancer Center Director for Translational Research at Yale Cancer Center, in December 2020 the FDA approved osimertinib for the treatment of adults with early-stage, non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with EGFR gene mutations. The immunotherapy drug atezolizumab also won FDA approval in May 2020 for improvement in survival over standard chemotherapy for many patients with newly diagnosed NSCLC, based on research from Yale Cancer Center and Smilow Cancer Hospital.
“These are exciting results that provide much-needed treatment options for our patients,” said Herbst. “But we continue our research to help find new therapeutics that could also be life-changing for many other patients with different types of this disease.”
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New lung cancer awareness campaign
