A new epigenetic therapy has shown potential for patients with recurrent metastatic non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), according to a recent issue of Cancer Discovery, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.
A combination epigenetic therapy of azacitidine and entinostat was tested in 45 patients with recurrent metastatic NSCLC who had progressed after previous therapies. A research team at Johns Hopkins University treated each patient with azacitidine for 9 days and entinostat for 2 days per month. During the trial, all patients received the treatment. There was no control group receiving a placebo.
The median survival increased from the typical 4 months for this patient population to 6.4 months with treatment. Furthermore, survival was better for patients who presented with signs of gene methylation reversal in at least 2 of 4 key genes. Plus, 2 patients experienced remarkable tumor reduction.
Anticancer therapies were given subsequently to 19 of the patients. Of those patients, 4 had a significant response to the immediate treatments. Seven patients remain alive, 2 of whom began treatment almost 4 years ago.
Charles Rudin, MD, PhD, professor of oncology and director of the Upper Aerodigestive Cancer Program at Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center, led the team of physicians and cancer biologists who conducted the study. He said, “We hope these results lead to a larger, more definitive clinical trial of this drug combination.”
Source: AACR.