Lung Cancer Deaths Cut in Half with AstraZeneca Pill

A once-daily pill from drugmaker AstraZeneca cut deaths in half among a subset of early-stage lung cancer patients who had undergone surgery, according to new clinical trial results. The data is the first to show how a targeted treatment for early-stage lung cancer impacts survival, said Dr. Roy Herbst, the trial's principal investigator and deputy director at Yale Cancer Center. The drug, called osimertinib and sold under the name Tagrisso, is directed at a specific receptor that helps cancer cells grow. The researchers found that the drug lowered the overall risk of death from lung cancer by 51%. Read more from NBC here.