Majority of patients with non-small cell lung cancer given a development drug from Novartis responded to the treatment, according to the results of study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, reports Newsmax Health.
LDK378 has been declared a "breakthrough therapy", a designation created by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2012 to help speed drugs to market that treat serious or life-threatening conditions and are deemed likely to work better than existing treatments.
Non-small cell lung cancer is the most common type of lung cancer, and sufferers tend to be non-smokers and younger than other lung cancer patients.
Patients survived for an average of seven months after taking LDK378, and 58 percent of those treated with the drug responded, Novartis said. Novartis is currently conducting Phase II and Phase III trials of the treatment.
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