Targeted treatment more effective against advanced lung cancer, Chinese University study finds

A targeted cancer therapy treatment has proved to be more effective than traditional chemotherapy in combating the most advanced stage of a type of lung cancer caused by gene mutation, new research has found.

Patients with stage-four lung cancer who tested positive for ALK - an abnormal gene which causes normal cells to transform into tumour cells in the lung - are more responsive to molecular therapy targeting the gene than standard chemotherapy, a study by Chinese University and Australian researcher Ben Solomon concluded. In patients who underwent therapy targeting ALK, tumours in the lung stopped growing for almost 11 months on average, compared to only seven months for those undergoing chemotherapy.

Targeted therapy patients' chances of survival were 5 per cent higher, the study found.

"This is a milestone in the sense that every patient with lung cancer should know about their ALK status because of this study," said Professor Tony Mok Shu-kam, who jointly led the research with Solomon. He added that the molecular targeted treatment could allow stage-four lung cancer patients to live a normal life.

The targeted therapy involves taking the anti-cancer drug Crizotinib, which unlike chemotherapy causes no hair loss and little vomiting, according to Mok.

In one case in the study, the patient, a non-smoker, was free of all symptoms such as coughing after taking the medication for two weeks.