FDA approves drug Amgen for persistently deadly form of lung cancer
The Food and Drug Administration on Thursday approved an innovative new treatment for patients with a form of lung cancer. It should only be used by patients who have exhausted all other options for treating small cell lung cancer and who have a life expectancy of four to five months.The drug tarlatamab, or Imdelltra, produced by the Amgen company, tripled the life expectancy of patients, guaranteeing them an average survival of 14 months after taking the drug. Forty percent of those who received the drug responded.After decades without real progress in treatments for small cell lung cancer, tarlatamab offers the first real hope, said Dr. Anish Thomas, a lung cancer specialist at the federal National Cancer Institute who was not involved in the study.“I feel like it's a light after a...