Lung cancer clinical trials show significant survival improvements

At the IASLC 2026 World Conference on Lung Cancer in Seoul, several major clinical trial results were presented, highlighting advancements in treating various forms of lung cancer.

In the non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) sector, the phase 3 Destiny-Lung04 study showed that trastuzumab deruxtecan, developed by Daiichi Sankyo and AstraZeneca, significantly improved progression-free survival for patients with Her2-mutated NSCLC. The drug reduced the risk of disease progression or death by 37% compared to standard chemotherapy.

Additionally, Johnson & Johnson reported that its Rybrevant (amivantamab) combination therapy achieved a median overall survival of 34.3 months for patients with EGFR exon 20 insertion mutations, compared to 27.9 months with chemotherapy alone. This marks a significant improvement for a population with historically poor outcomes.

For small-cell lung cancer (SCLC), the phase 3 TAISHAN-302 trial found that MediLink Therapeutics’ tambotatug pelitecan (Tam-Peli) significantly improved survival in relapsed patients, reducing the risk of death by 54% compared to topotecan.

Finally, long-term data from the ADAURA trial demonstrated that adjuvant osimertinib provides sustained overall survival benefits for patients with resected, EGFR-mutated stage IB-IIIA NSCLC, with an eight-year survival rate of 74% in stage II-IIIA patients compared to 58% for those receiving a placebo.