Two pills together cut the risk of death by 32% when lung cancer outsmarts the first one

Some lung cancers learn to resist osimertinib, the targeted pill that first held them back. In the Phase 3 SAFFRON trial, presented at the ESMO congress in Madrid by a team led by Professor Shun Lu of Shanghai, 338 such patients took osimertinib plus a second targeted pill, savolitinib — which blocks a bypass signal called MET that cancers use to escape — or standard chemotherapy. The two-pill group lived a median of 17.8 months against 12.9 on chemotherapy, a 32% lower risk of death, and their responses lasted longer too (9.7 months against 5.7). Researchers called the all-pill combination 'practice changing' for this group of patients.

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