Cancer drugs on trial

A NEW combination of drugs to treat lung and pancreatic cancers is to go on trial in Scotland as part of a collaboration between Cancer Research UK and drugs firms MSD and Verastem.

Work will be co-led by scientists in Edinburgh and managed by the Cancer Research UK clinical trials unit in Glasgow. Cancer Research UK said it will investigate whether the effectiveness of an immunotherapy drug developed by MSD, called pembrolizumab, can be boosted by giving it in combination with a second drug, called defactinib, from Verastem.