Lung cancer breakthrough drug very encouraging

Despite the fact that it has only been tested on animals so far, charities have widely welcomed the news that a potential new drug for treating one of the most virulent forms of lung cancer has been identified by London scientists 

The team from Imperial College London has reported that the drug PD173074 was successful in destroying 50 per cent of tumours in mice genetically engineered to suffer from small cell lung cancer 

While the researchers now intend to follow up their animal testing with full clinical trials, the treatment is still a long way off being made available for people with lung cancer 

Even so, the Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation has welcomed the development as a great step forward 

The charity's chief executive Rosemary Gillespie said: 'We're always very encouraged and very pleased to see potential new drugs in the pipeline, particularly as there are so few treatments for lung cancer and because at the moment the outcomes for people who are affected by the disease generally are poor 

'The drugs that join production and development today are going to be the treatments of tomorrow,' she added 

According to the latest figures from Cancer Research UK, lung cancer is the second most common form of the disease in the UK