Promising drugs stoke talk of eventual cancer cure

LOS ANGELES ( Reuters) — Robert Waag is alive and apparently cancer-free more than two years after advanced melanoma reached his lungs, hips and other parts of his body — a feat only recently considered unthinkable for such patients.

Waag, 77, is on the immunotherapy Keytruda, a new type of drug that enlists the body’s defenses in the fight.

The first new immunotherapy drug for cancer was introduced in 2011, so long term efficacy is unknown. But the approach is showing promise.

Before these drugs, the prognosis for most patients with advanced melanoma was a year at best.

In one study of Keytruda, 40 percent of such patients survived at least three years, and 10 percent showed no evidence of cancer.

“The prospect that more and more patients will be cured is becoming a reality,” said Waag’s oncologist Dr. Lynn Schuchter.

After decades in which progress meant eking out weeks or months at the end of life, such treatments are changing the dialogue around cancer.

One study of cancer drug Opdivo in patients with a type of advanced lung cancer found that 23 percent were alive two years after starting the drug, compared to eight percent of those given standard chemotherapy.

“We are raising the bar for overall survival,” said Fouad Namouni, head of medical research at Bristol Myers. “How can we do more? We are looking at combining immunotherapy agents.”

Researchers are also trying to determine which patients will respond best to immunotherapy and how long they need to continue treatment.