AstraZeneca’s Tagrisso greatly slowed some lung cancers

In patients with stage 3 lung cancer where a particular genetic mutation is present in the tumor, taking AstraZeneca’s cancer-fighting pill Tagrisso reduced the chance that disease would progress by 84%.

“This will be practice changing as soon as this becomes available,” said David R. Spigel, chief scientific officer of the Sarah Cannon Research Institute at a press conference announcing the results at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology. “This will be how patients are treated wherever they can get access to this drug.”

Spigel but was not involved in the Tagrisso study but has relationships with multiple drugmakers including AstraZeneca.