Pfizer lung cancer drug shows promising long-term trial results [Video]

CHICAGO — Pfizer on Friday said its drug for an advanced form of lung cancer showed promising long-term results in a late-stage trial, which may help establish it as the new standard treatment for the condition.

The company’s medicine helped patients live longer without seeing their cancer progress, and most people experienced that benefit for over five years. The drug, called Lorbrena, also cut the risk of the cancer progressing in patients’ brains.

Lorbrena is already approved in the U.S. for treating adults with advanced non-small cell lung cancer who have a mutation in a gene called ALK. Only about 5% of all non-small cell lung cancer patients have the mutation, which causes cancer cells to grow and spread abnormally. 

But that translates to 72,000 people who are diagnosed with that specific form of lung cancer each year worldwide, according to a release from Pfizer. That cancer is typically aggressive and often affects younger people, the company …