A new daily pill has shown promising results in reducing the risk of death from common lung cancer. In India, lung cancer accounts for 5.9% of all cancers and 8.1% of all cancer-related deaths, according to a 2021 study published in the Thoracic Oncology Journal.

Previous research has shown new treatment options for lung cancer. For example, in December of last year, Columbia Engineering researchers developed a new experimental line to combine bacterial therapy with current cancer drugs.

This new study shows that a pill, taken once a day, halved the risk of dying from lung cancer after tumor removal surgery, as reported by PTI. The research, published in The New England Journal of Medicinedemonstrated the effect of the drug osimertinib, which drastically reduced the risk of death of patients after surgery by 51%.

For the study, 682 patients were randomly assigned in a 1:1 ratio to receive osimertinib (80 mg once daily) or placebo until disease recurrence was observed. The results revealed that 85% of patients treated with osimertinib were alive at five years compared to 73% who received placebo, as reported by PTI.

In addition, in the overall trial population, 88% of patients treated with osimertinib were alive at five years compared with 78% who received placebo, the researchers said.

“These long-awaited overall survival results, with 88 percent of patients alive at five years, are a momentous achievement in the treatment of early-stage EGFR-mutant lung cancer,” said the trial’s principal investigator, Roy S. Herbst, Associate Director and Chief of Medical Oncology at Yale Cancer Center and Smilow Cancer Hospital, USA, as reported by PTI. The data emphasize that adjuvant treatment with osimertinib gives patients the best chance for long-term survival, Herbst added.

Susan Galbraith, executive vice president of R&D in oncology at AstraZeneca, called osimertinib a transformative drug and said it is the leading treatment for epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutated lung cancer.

“These results emphasize the importance of diagnosing lung cancer patients early, testing for EGFR mutations, and treating all those with an EGFR mutation with Tagrisso (osimertinib),” Galbraith said in the statement, as reported by PTI.