Drug hope for lung cancer patients

A new immunotherapy drug similar to the one highlighted by writer AA Gill before his death can significantly extend the lives of lung cancer patients, trial results have shown.

Scientists compared the effectiveness of atezolizumab with standard chemotherapy in a group of 1,225 patients with advanced non-small-cell-lung cancer.

The drug, an antibody that leaves cancer cells vulnerable to immune attack, increased survival from an average 9.6 months to 13.8.