An experimental drug, Setidegrasib, has shown promising results in treating certain advanced cancers, according to a recent clinical study of patients.
Published in the medical journal The New England Journal of Medicine, this international research highlights the treatment’s ability to slow tumor progression and reduce the size of tumors in some patients.
The study focused on advanced cases of lung cancer and pancreatic cancer, two conditions that are particularly difficult to treat, particularly in the absence of effective therapeutic options at an advanced stage.
The drug targets a specific genetic mutation, KRAS G12D, known to play a key role in the development and survival of cancer cells. This mutation affects around 40% of pancreatic cancers and almost 5% of non-small cell lung cancers, but it has long remained difficult to target.
Unlike traditional approaches which consist of blocking the proteins responsible for cancer, setidegrasib works by destroying them directly within tumor cells, a strategy which could improve its effectiveness.
The first phase of clinical trials involved 203 patients in 28 centers across five countries, all of whom had previously received treatments without satisfactory results. Researchers identified an optimal dose of 600 mg given intravenously once a week.
The results show that 36% of lung cancer patients who received this dose observed a reduction in the size of their tumors, with an average duration of response of 8.3 months. Among pancreatic cancer patients, 24% showed improvement, with an average survival of 10.3 months for those already heavily treated.
Biological analyzes also confirmed a decrease in the levels of the targeted protein in the tumors as well as a drop in tumor markers in the blood.
Side effects controlled
The treatment was generally well tolerated. Observed side effects, such as rash, itching, and nausea, were most often mild to moderate and medically controllable.
For Jonathan Goldman, one of the main authors of the study, these results, although preliminary, are significant: “We are working on cancers for which targeted therapeutic options have until now been limited”.
He believes that if these results are confirmed, they could open the way to a new therapeutic approach aimed not only at blocking carcinogenic proteins, but at eliminating them completely.
Additional trials are underway to compare this treatment to existing therapies and to extend this strategy to other types of cancer.
