Medicine

A new treatment will be available in future for patients with metastatic lung cancer: If their tumour exhibits a mutation in the EGFR gene exon 19, a new targeted active agent could help to extend their lives by an average of one year. This has been shown in two international studies in which researchers from the Faculty of Medicine have participated. The findings of the studies have now been published in the renowned journal The Lancet Oncology. Some 55,600 people were diagnosed with lung cancer in Germany in 2014: “Chemotherapy has hitherto been the main treatment option for patients; in future, we will be able to offer them much more targeted therapy, even if the cancer has already spread to other parts of the body,” explains Prof. Martin Schuler, leader of the study in Germany and Director of the Clinic for Internal Medicine (Tumour Research). However, the patients must be among those exhibiting an EGFR mutation in exon 19. This applies to between five and seven percent of all patients with adenocarcinoma of the lung.