Lexington-based University of Kentucky Markey Cancer Center has become the first in the U.S. trial site for the novel immunotherapy drug Alveltamig, according to a Jan. 5 report from the Kentucky Lantern.
The drug is being offered to patients with extensive or limited stage small cell lung cancer that has recurred after receiving first-line chemotherapy. Alveltamig has three “arms” that grab and attach cancer cells to white blood cells to be killed. Tarlatamab, an FDA-approved small cell lung cancer treatment, has two “arms,” in comparison.
The trial will enroll 36 patients, the first of whom received the therapy in late October. The patient has tolerated the treatment well and has not experienced any “appreciable” side effects, Zhonglin Hao, MD, PhD, co-leader of Markey Cancer Center’s thoracic oncology program, told the Lantern.
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