Lung cancer and the case for next-gen drugs

There’s been a substantial drop in cancer deaths, particularly of the lung. And though a general decrease in smoking is driving some of this change, it’s also a sign that next-gen cancer medications seem to work, National Cancer Institute director Norman E. Sharpless writes for STAT.

In recent years, deaths from non-small cell lung cancer have decreased much more quickly than new cases, according to a new NEJM study — while small-cell lung cancer have decreased at the same rate as incidence. This, in Sharpless's view, is a clear sign that the small molecule drugs and checkpoint inhibitors that target NSCLC tumors are making a substantial dent in patient life expectancy.

“At the start of my career as an oncologist, advanced melanoma and lung cancer were mostly a death sentence,” Sharpless writes. “That we now see treatments effective enough to shift national death trends in these cancers is worth celebrating.”