Two kidney-cancer drugs, alternated, more than doubled survival in a trial — 63 months against a typical 29

For people with advanced clear cell kidney cancer — the most common kind — the standard first drug, pazopanib, typically holds the disease back for about nine months. A team led by Dr Saby George at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center tried a different rhythm: alternating pazopanib with a second targeted drug, bevacizumab, so the cancer keeps facing a changing opponent and resistance develops more slowly. In the Phase 2 portion of their trial, published in The Lancet Oncology and run at five US academic cancer centres, 51 patients went a median of 24.8 months without their disease progressing — and lived a median of 63.2 months overall, against the roughly 28 to 29 months typical on the standard drug alone. 'This novel regimen was found to be safe and efficacious, and reasonably well tolerated,' George said. 'It delayed development of treatment resistance, leading to prolonged survival.'

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