Lung cancer is the second most common cancer in the UK with around 43,500 new patients
diagnosed each year. About 69% of patients are diagnosed with advanced stage disease and at
present these patients would be expected to survive for less than 12 months. These statistics
therefore show the need for the development of new effective drugs in the treatment of
advanced Lung cancer.
Recent trial results have shown the efficacy of immunotherapy in treating several types of
tumours including lung cancer. These tumours are known to express a high level of a
glycoprotein called PDL1 which is a component of the PD1 pathway. In cancer the PD1 pathway
can be hijacked by tumours leading to the immune system being suppressed. The aim of the new
drug Pembrolizumab is to restart the PD1 pathway and use the immune system to help fight the
cancer cells. Radiotherapy has also been shown to cause cancer to increase production of the
proteins that can block the immune system. Therefore it has been proposed that combine of new
immunotherapy agent such as pembrolizumab and radiotherapy in the treatment of lung cancer
will allow more cancer cells to be killed through the immune system.
The purpose of this study is to see if pembrolizumab can safety be combined with standard
palliative radiotherapy in patients with lung cancer. In addition once the patients have
completed their course of radiotherapy they will remain on pembrolizumab alone and the study
will look at how well this treatment regimen can control the growth of the cancer.
Phase:
Phase 1
Details
Lead Sponsor:
Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust
Collaborators:
Institute of Cancer Research, United Kingdom Merck Sharp & Dohme Corp. National Institute for Health Research, United Kingdom