New NHS blood cancer pill could help patients live well for longer

Patients battling an incurable blood cancer could live significantly longer without their disease progressing, thanks to a new once-daily pill that may soon be added to existing NHS treatments, researchers have revealed.

A recent trial demonstrated that individuals receiving a 'triplet therapy', which incorporated the novel drug mezigdomide, experienced more than double the progression-free survival time.

Multiple myeloma, a type of blood cancer originating from abnormal plasma cells in the bone marrow, affects approximately 6,200 people in the UK each year. This promising new treatment specifically targets relapsed or refractory cases, where the cancer has either returned after remission or has ceased responding to previous therapies.

Mezigdomide functions by attaching to a specific protein within the body. It then acts like a molecular 'magnet', drawing in and degrading other disease-causing proteins vital for the survival of multiple myeloma cells. By eliminating these cancer-promoting proteins, the drug also stimulates the body's own immune system to attack and destroy any remaining cancer cells.

The trial by researchers in the US, which is being presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology annual meeting in Chicago, included 479 people with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma.

Some 288 patients were given the new triplet drug of mezigdomide, carfilzomib, and dexamethasone, while 191 had carfilzomib and dexamethasone.

After a follow-up period, those in the mezigdomide group lived for a median of 18 months without their disease progressing, compared to 8.3 months in the group given the two-drug combination.

The improvement was also seen across different sub-groups, including patients with more aggressive cancer.

The study also found that around eight in 10 of the mezigdomide patients responded to treatment compared to a little over half (53.4%) in the other group.

Among patients in the mezigdomide group, more than a quarter (26.7%) had no evidence of disease, compared to only 8.9% of patients on just carfilzomib and dexamethasone.