The SAFRON study, presented at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress and published in The New England Journal of Medicine, compared this new strategy with conventional chemotherapy in 338 patients. The results show a 45% reduction in the risk of disease progression or death for those receiving the drug combination.
The median overall survival increased to 17.8 months with the new combination, compared to 12.9 months with chemotherapy. This strategy targets patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) whose tumors have specific genetic alterations, such as mutations in the EGFR and MET genes, which hinder the effectiveness of previous treatments.
Dr. Mariano Provencio, head of the hospital's Medical Oncology Service, highlighted the importance of precision medicine in oncology, which allows treatments to be tailored to the individual characteristics of each tumor. The combination of osimertinib, acting on EGFR, and savolitinib, which blocks MET, aims to overcome tumor resistance mechanisms.
The most frequent side effects associated with the combination included edema, anemia, and diarrhea. This breakthrough represents a new therapeutic option for patients with limited treatment alternatives and underscores the involvement of the Puerta de Hierro Majadahonda University Hospital in oncological clinical research.
