WASHINGTON — Researchers have taken a step toward personalizing the treatment of lung cancer.
Matching treatments to specific mutations in tumors is routine for some cancers, such as breast cancer, but until recently, chemotherapy for lung cancer has been given on a one-treatment-fits-all basis. Now, a new study, called the BATTLE trial, shows that treatments tailored for each patient’s particular type of lung cancer may improve outcomes.
Results of the Phase II trial, the first large clinical trial to test the effectiveness of a personalized approach to lung cancer, were presented April 18 during the annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research.
Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in the United States, killing more people than breast cancer, prostate cancer and several other types of cancer combined. “This war is something we’ve been losing for a long time using the traditional methods of chemotherapy,” said Edward S. Kim, an oncologist at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston and one of the coleaders of the trial.