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The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently approved a new combination of chemotherapy and immunotherapy for people with advanced non-small cell lung cancer who are ineligible for surgery or chemoradiation and whose tumors do not carry any gene mutations that can be targeted with other highly specific drugs. Jeffrey G. Schneider, MD, chief of hematology and oncology at Perlmutter 鶹Ƶapp Center at NYU Langone Hospital—Long Island, tells SurvivorNet that combining the immunotherapy, called Libtayo, with chemotherapy enables people with advanced lung cancer to have “two shots” at an effective therapy at once.
“The benefits of this therapy are very meaningful because the addition of immunotherapy adds significantly to both quality and quantity of life.” says Dr. Schneider, also an associate professor in the at NYU Long Island School of Medicine. “Moreover, it is safe. There is much more chance that a patient will die because they did not get this combination than because they did.”
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