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AstraZeneca unveils successes in treatment of lung cancer

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Re: AstraZeneca unveils successes in treatment of lung cancer

#51

Post by s1artibartfast »

pauln99 wrote: post #31
jncfhnb wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The distribution skews right on these things. Median probably is not the right way to think about it

Maybe I've misunderstood, but for the average person that's even worse news, right? Two months was from clinical trials where there's no doubt that the "thumb is on the scale" in a host of ways, creating an exaggerated estimate of efficacy that would be realised in the real world. The reality is closer to no life extension, with the remaining lifespan is spent sicker than you'd have been without the drugs.

>The reality is closer to no life extension, with the remaining lifespan is spent sicker than you'd have been without the drugs.

I dont think that is true at all. The data is pretty clear that lifespan is significantly increasing.

>Over time, the mean overall survival has improved from two months in 1973 to five months in 2015. Regarding long-term survival, a clear rise in 2yS is noted, increasing from 2.6% in 1973 to 12.9% in 2013 (latest year of which 2yS data can be calculated; Figure 1 and Tables 1 and 2), occurring mostly after the mid-1990s. A more modest increase is seen in the 5yS, from 0.7% in 1973 to 3.2% in 2010.

>https://www.researchgate.net/publication/348455938_Long-Term...

Re: AstraZeneca unveils successes in treatment of lung cancer

#52

Post by zoratu »

adamredwoods wrote: post #42

According to Wikipedia, it depends on a specific cancer cell mutation, T790M, which could also be a forced mutation from using other EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitors. This alludes how tricky, and how fast, cancer cells mutate and adapt. >> In people treated with osimertinib, resistance usually develops within approximately 10 months. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osimertinib

In my MIL's case it was L858R. T790M also present, effectiveness of drug dramatically increased with presence of both. Osimertinib shrunk the tumor from baseball to golfball, and then her left most lung lobe was surgically removed. She was stage 2 at intake and without metastastis. The drug was not approved for that case in 2021 and she was admitted to an ongoing case study for it.

Re: AstraZeneca unveils successes in treatment of lung cancer

#53

Post by riversflow »

e40 wrote: post #38
formercoder wrote: post #15

My aunt was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer and is only alive because of this drug. It’s a marvel of modern medicine.

My wife was diagnosed in Nov '23. Stage 4. She had a mutation that allowed Tagrisso/osimertinib. There are many mutations, but this one is prevalent in Asian women who have never smoked. There was a trial published just after her diagnosis that showed progression free survival at 2 years of 57% (chemo+osimertinib) vs 41% (osimertinib). https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2306434 She's 6 days into the chemo. T…

[flagged]

Re: AstraZeneca unveils successes in treatment of lung cancer

#54

Post by boppo1 »

yieldcrv wrote: post #50
instagraham wrote: post #27

> Tagrisso earned $5.8bn in sales in 2023 — 13 per cent of AstraZeneca’s total oncology sales — making it the company’s highest earner. The drug seems to have been approved in 2015-16. If that's the case, why is this announcement of efficacy happening now? A long-term outcome after a short-term tentative approval?

US approval follows the path of one treatment for one ailment. so if something was useful for 100 ailments, it needs 100 different approvals, and a company willing to attempt doing that what more likely happens is one treatment is denied for the one ailment the company thought they were tackling, and that one treatment is never pursued again so there's a lot of waste in this particular approach to protecting the publ…

Seems like there's a lot of opportunity with those unused treatments, if you can get the right arrangement of capital. If the company gives up on pursuit, perhaps the'd sell it for less than the R&D cost. Someone could go scoop up 'losers' and find a better way to match them to ailments.

Re: AstraZeneca unveils successes in treatment of lung cancer

#55

Post by ackbar03 »

yieldcrv wrote: post #50
instagraham wrote: post #27

> Tagrisso earned $5.8bn in sales in 2023 — 13 per cent of AstraZeneca’s total oncology sales — making it the company’s highest earner. The drug seems to have been approved in 2015-16. If that's the case, why is this announcement of efficacy happening now? A long-term outcome after a short-term tentative approval?

US approval follows the path of one treatment for one ailment. so if something was useful for 100 ailments, it needs 100 different approvals, and a company willing to attempt doing that what more likely happens is one treatment is denied for the one ailment the company thought they were tackling, and that one treatment is never pursued again so there's a lot of waste in this particular approach to protecting the publ…

Why doesn't the company pursue it for other purposes? Sounds extremely narrow, as per the comment above. There may be related stuff where it works as a treatment depending on the endpoint?

Re: AstraZeneca unveils successes in treatment of lung cancer

#57

Post by StevePerkins »

riversflow wrote: post #53
e40 wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My wife was diagnosed in Nov '23. Stage 4. She had a mutation that allowed Tagrisso/osimertinib. There are many mutations, but this one is prevalent in Asian women who have never smoked. There was a trial published just after her diagnosis that showed progression free survival at 2 years of 57% (chemo+osimertinib) vs 41% (osimertinib). https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2306434 She's 6 days into the chemo. T…

[flagged]

Jesus.

Re: AstraZeneca unveils successes in treatment of lung cancer

#58

Post by dj_mc_merlin »

riversflow wrote: post #53
e40 wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My wife was diagnosed in Nov '23. Stage 4. She had a mutation that allowed Tagrisso/osimertinib. There are many mutations, but this one is prevalent in Asian women who have never smoked. There was a trial published just after her diagnosis that showed progression free survival at 2 years of 57% (chemo+osimertinib) vs 41% (osimertinib). https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2306434 She's 6 days into the chemo. T…

[flagged]

Practice some empathy.

Re: AstraZeneca unveils successes in treatment of lung cancer

#60

Post by s1artibartfast »

yieldcrv wrote: post #50
instagraham wrote: post #27

> Tagrisso earned $5.8bn in sales in 2023 — 13 per cent of AstraZeneca’s total oncology sales — making it the company’s highest earner. The drug seems to have been approved in 2015-16. If that's the case, why is this announcement of efficacy happening now? A long-term outcome after a short-term tentative approval?

US approval follows the path of one treatment for one ailment. so if something was useful for 100 ailments, it needs 100 different approvals, and a company willing to attempt doing that what more likely happens is one treatment is denied for the one ailment the company thought they were tackling, and that one treatment is never pursued again so there's a lot of waste in this particular approach to protecting the publ…

One other facet to consider is that it is already legal to for doctors to the medicine for any of those 100 approvals. those trials serve three purposes, 1) to generate high quality data to support doctor choice, 2) provide defense for medical malpractice suits against doctors, and 3) support insurance reimbursement.

Doctors already have discretion to prescribe Tagrisso for the common flu. However, a doctor that does so will struggle to get insurance to cover it, and will have a harder defense if the patient sues.

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