New lung cancer pill cuts risk of death by half

A new pill has shown promise of reducing the risk of death from lung cancer by half, according to results of a decade-long global clinical trial. Taking the drug osimertinib, developed by AstraZeneca, after surgery dramatically reduced the risk of patients dying by 51 per cent, showed results presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology’s (Asco) annual meeting in Chicago. Osimertinib, which is marketed as Tagrisso, targets a particular type of lung cancer in patients suffering from non-small cell cancer ,the most common type — and showing a particular type of mutation. Lung cancer is the world’s leading cause of cancer death, accounting for about 1.8 million deaths a year.