Scientists at Yale University, sponsored by the pharmaceutical group AstraZeneca, have discovered a pill that almost doubles the survival rate for a certain type of lung cancer. The results of the work are presented at the annual conference in Chicago, organized by the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO).

The drug, called Tagrisso, contains the active ingredient osimertinib, which is designed to fight non-small cell cancer. This type of mutation occurs in the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) and occurs in 10-25 percent of patients in the US and Europe and 30-40 percent of Asians.

In clinical trials, the authors tested osimertinib in 680 participants from 120 countries with early disease. First, the patients underwent surgery to remove the tumor, and then half of the subjects were given pills as treatment, and the other half were given a placebo.

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The authors found that taking the drug increased survival by 51 percent compared with the placebo group. After five years, 88 percent of treated participants were still alive compared to 78 percent of placebo patients. Specialists believe that Tagrisso helps prevent the spread of cancer to the brain, liver, and bones.

In April, Oxford University researchers developed a neural network that could predict lung cancer risk ten years into the future.