A certain class of breast cancer drugs that are showing promise in treating the disease in clinical trials could also benefit those suffering from lung cancer, new research has found.

A study by the Francis Crick Institute and the Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) has found that the drug that targets and blocks a protein called p110α could also be used to treat EGFR-mutant lung cancers that are no longer responding to treatment.

News Medical Life Sciences reported on the findings, noting that drugs targeting this protein are expected to be approved for clinical use in breast cancer treatments in the near future.

However, this latest study indicates that its use could be broadened to cover EGFR-mutant lung cancers whose tumours have become resistant to treatment.

Professor Julian Downward, study lead, told the news provider that although the current treatments for EGFR-mutant lung cancers are initially very effective, the cancer typically becomes resistant and starts to spread again after a few years.

This means that patients with this form of cancer then have to undergo chemotherapy, which isn’t targeted and has nasty side effects.

“Our new study suggests that it would be worth investigating whether p110α inhibitors could be used as a second-line therapy,” he stated.

However, Professor Downward added that the research is at a very early stage, and much more research is needed in both mice and patient cells before it would be possible to move onto clinical trials in this area.

In 2016 the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) granted a licence for osimertinib (Tagrisso) to be made available to lung cancer patients with the EGFR T790M-positive mutation.

At the time it had shown short-term benefits to patients suffering from this mutation, but the longer-term effects were still being studied. If you’re looking for pharmaceutical repackaging companies, contact KFM Cop-Packer today to find out about our services.