ST. LOUIS, Mo. – More than 131,000 people will die of lung cancer this year. It has the lowest five-year survival rate of the other most common cancers. That’s because by the time you feel the symptoms, it’s usually too late to effectively treat.
Now, a new drug is adding years to a patient’s life.
Not much scares Cindy Morris.
“I’m an exciting person. I like doing exciting stuff,” she said.
From jumping solo at 1,300 feet, to speeding down the highway on her Harley, Morris thought nothing could stop her, until…
“I woke up on a Saturday and there was a large lump in my neck,” she said.
Morris was diagnosed with stage four non-small cell lung cancer.
“I was stunned,” she said.
Radiation, chemo, surgery and two clinical trials worked temporarily. But tumors returned in her lungs, lymph nodes, adrenal glands, spleen and brain. Then a new drug gave her new hope.
“I take six of them a day,” Morris said.
Washington University lung cancer oncologists believed this new drug, Sotorasib, may be Morris’ last chance.
“We were in a tough situation where the tumor was popping up everywhere,” said Dr. Siddhartha Devarakonda an oncologist at Washington University School of Medicine.
Sotorasib targets tumors caused by a specific DNA mutation, blocking cancer cells from multiplying.
“She had this huge lump that was sitting on the, on her belly. We knew that that was bad. And when we started the drug within a couple of weeks, I can no longer find it on exam,” Devarakonda said.
One week after starting the trial, Morris was able to cut her pain medication in half. Three weeks into the trial, her tumors began shrinking. Now, two years later, she’s still taking the drug and all but one tumor in her lung have disappeared.
“I’ve done a mission trip. I’ve been back to my church. I mean, I feel like me again,” Morris said.
Researchers say in 80% of the 126 patients on the trial, tumors got smaller or the growth did not progress.
Sotorasib is FDA approved and sold under the brand name Lumakras.