First progress in years for a rare bone cancer: a new drug more than tripled time without growth

Osteosarcoma is a rare, aggressive bone cancer that mostly strikes teenagers and young adults, and once it comes back, treatment has barely improved in years. In the randomised Artemis-011 trial, 122 patients with relapsed or stubborn osteosarcoma received either a new antibody-drug conjugate, risvutatug rezetecan — a treatment that carries a cell-killing payload straight to tumour cells — or standard chemotherapy. The new drug held the cancer back for a median of 5.5 months, against 1.4 months on chemotherapy. 'A randomised trial showing positive results with a new drug in adolescents and adults with this rare, aggressive bone cancer is something that we have not seen for years,' said Nathalie Gaspar of Gustave Roussy in France, discussing the results at the ESMO Congress in Madrid. The findings were published at the same time in the Annals of Oncology; survival data are still maturing, and side effects on blood counts were significant and closely managed.

SDG 3 · Good health and well-being — Mechanism: tech innovation