Drug combo could DOUBLE cancer recovery rate as experts hail ‘exciting’ new findings
Pairing different drugs as part of same cancer treatment shows incredible potential
USING immunotherapy drugs alongside cancer treatments could double survival chances.
Experts say the drugs enable the body’s own immune system to hunt down and kill cancer cells.
Clinical trials of 498 patients with “incurable” bone marrow cancer multiple myeloma showed the half given drugs in combination had a 61 per cent reduced risk of dying.
Tumours shrank significantly in 59 per cent, compared with 29 per cent of those who were given single-drug treatment.
In 19 per cent the cancer went totally. It was nine per cent in the standard group.
The findings by Italy’s Torino University were revealed at the American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting in Chicago.
US Vice-President Joe Biden, whose son Beau died of brain cancer, said the treatment had come in from the “hinterlands”.
Patients with lung and bladder cancer also responded well.
It’s very exciting as it looks as though we can increase the power of the treatment
Professor Peter Johnson
Professor Peter Johnson, Cancer Research UK's chief clinician, said the idea of combining immunotherapy drugs had the potential to benefit thousands of people in the UK.
He said more research was needed but added: “It’s very exciting as it looks as though we can increase the power of the treatment.
“The darker side is that the side effects seem to be more common.
“If we can find new ways to combine different immune treatments, it looks as though we'll be able to treat more patients effectively, and potentially to start using them in other types of cancer."
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