Terminal cancer patients could be saved by ‘exciting’ new treatment

In In The News by Barbara Jacoby

By: Sophie Borland

From: dailymail.co.uk

Thousands of terminally-ill cancer patients could go into remission by being given two breakthrough drugs at the same time, research shows.

Trials unveiled at the world’s largest cancer conference have shown that a new technique of offering two types of immunotherapy at once– not just one – more than doubles the numbers of patients who benefit.

Immunotherapy has been hailed as the new era in cancer treatment and it works by teaching the body’s own immune system to hunt out and attack tumours.

But although some patients have been effectively cured, typically only a fifth properly benefit.

Early findings of British research presented at the American Society for Clinical Oncology conference in Chicago reveal that when two types of immunotherapy were offered, half of all patients responded.

The trial by the University of Glasgow involves 77 patients with terminal lung cancer who had exhausted all other treatment options and were only expected to live for a few more months or weeks.

All were given two immunotherapy jabs, nivolumab and ipilimumab, several times a week and 47 per cent have survived for a year – and most are still alive today.

Meanwhile the early findings of a separate trial by US and Canadian researchers unveiled at the conference show that giving two types of immunotherapy at the same time may also help thousands of bowel cancer patients.

Researchers believe that the reason two drugs are so much more effective is that one accelerates the action of the other.

So one type of immunotherapy teaches the immune system to hunt out and eradicate tumours – but most patients only respond marginally.

The other drug accelerates this process enabling the immune system to be far more effective in many more patients.

Professor Peter Johnson, Cancer Research UK’s chief clinician, said the two-drug technique could help thousands of British patients.

‘It’s very exciting as it looks as though we can increase the power of the treatment.

‘It looks as though if we can find new ways to combine different immune treatments we’ll be able to treat more patients effectively, and potentially to start using them in other types of cancer, where up until now the results with single antibodies (immunotherapy drugs) haven’t been so good.

‘It’s potentially in the thousands.

‘It’s still early in the research but all the results we’re seeing are very positive.

Professor Jeff Evans, Director of Institute of Cancer Sciences, from the University of Glasgow, who is leading the British research said: ‘Harnessing the immune system to tackle cancers is one of the most exciting areas in cancer research right now.

‘Studies of this combination of nivolumab and ipilimumab report very encouraging results in lung cancer.

‘This combination has been shown to be effective in shrinking tumours with manageable side-effects.’

Early findings from a trial of 44 bowel cancer patients by a team of doctors from specialist cancer centres in the US, Canada and Australia shows that giving two drugs at the same time is also far more effective than one.

The research has only been underway for six months and but already many patients have responded extremely well.

Immunotherapy is extremely expensive and typically costs £100,000 a year, four times as much as chemotherapy.

And currently just three types of immunotherapy are available on the NHS – two for skin and one for lung cancer – although many others are awaiting approval from the drugs rationing body NICE.

But combining two types of immunotherapy would potentially double the costs – so the NHS will not be able to offer this to all patients who need it.

Immunotherapy can also cause debilitating side effects including bowel ulcers and lung damage – and this is worse when two drugs are combined.

But researchers say they are increasingly learning how to control these symptoms with other drugs, to ensure patients can go about their normal routines.

Dr Alan Worsley, senior science communication officer at Cancer Research UK, said the technique could help thousands of patients go into remission.

‘Finding out which combinations of these drugs might work together is really exciting.’