Promising results for new antibody drug in non-small cell lung cancer patients: smokers respond well

New results from a trial of an antibody that helps the immune system to recognise and attack cancer cells have shown particularly encouraging responses in patients who are smokers or former smokers. Presenting the most up-to-date data from 85 patients with non-small cell lung cancer in a large, phase I clinical trial of an experimental drug called MPDL3280A, Professor Jean-Charles Soria told the 2013 European Cancer Congress: “This is the first study to suggest a potential relationship between smoking history and response to inhibiting the PD-L1/PD-1 pathway – a pathway that is instrumental in enabling cancer cells to escape detection by the immune system. In this study, 26% of smokers responded to treatment, whereas only 10% of never-smokers responded. The fact that smokers seemed to respond better is great news for lung cancer patients, because the majority of them are former or current smokers.” Read more here.