Hengrui Pharma makes new breakthrough in lung cancer treatment

A key lung cancer congress held in Europe disclosed that a new breakthrough has been made by Hengrui Pharmaceuticals, a leading innovator in China's pharmaceutical sector, to help prolong and improve the lives of cancer patients worldwide.

During the congress, Professor Zhou Caicun from Shanghai East Hospital spearheaded the global release of the 5-year survival data from the CameL-sq study and presented its latest findings.

The results show that the 5-year overall survival (OS) rate for patients treated with camrelizumab plus chemotherapy was 27.8 percent, indicating that more than one-quarter of patients survived beyond five years.

This regimen significantly reduced the risk of death by 43 percent, enabling more patients to achieve long-term survival, and representing another significant contribution from Hengrui Pharmaceuticals in helping prolong and improve the lives of cancer patients worldwide.

The five-year survival rate serves as a critical indicator for assessing potential clinical cure in oncology. China's Healthy China 2030 initiative has established an ambitious target to increase the overall five-year survival rate for cancer patients by 15 percent.

Epidemiologic data from the National Cancer Center consistently identify lung cancer as the malignancy with the highest incidence and mortality rates across both genders. However, early symptoms of lung cancer are frequently overlooked, resulting in the late diagnosis of most patients at an advanced stage. In the era dominated by traditional chemotherapy, the five-year survival rate of patients with advanced lung cancer was below 10 percent.

Among histologic subtypes, squamous NSCLC presents unique challenges as it does not benefit from targeted therapies, leading to relatively poor survival outcomes. With the advent of immunotherapy drugs, the prognosis for squamous NSCLC has significantly improved; however, numerous unmet clinical needs remain.

Camrelizumab is a humanized IgG4 monoclonal antibody independently developed by Hengrui Pharmaceuticals. With high binding affinity to PD-1, it has been shown to significantly improve the overall survival of patients with various solid tumors, including lung cancer, liver cancer, esophageal cancer and nasopharyngeal cancer.

The significant clinical benefits of camrelizumab plus chemotherapy represent a meaningful advancement toward the goals outlined in the Healthy China 2030 blueprint for cancer prevention and control.

Please contact the writer at hanjingyan@chinadaily.com.cn