KARACHI, Pakistan

A new Chinese drug has shown record treatment success against an uncommon lung cancer, offering a beacon of hope for patients grappling with the disease, state media reported Monday. 

The Phase 2 clinical trial of sunvozertinib, which aims to combat a specific type of lung cancer in which a tumor harbors an “EGFR exon 20 insertions” mutation, has shown a 61% anti-tumor activity response, higher than any previous candidates, the South China Morning Post reported.

The trial enrolled 104 advanced patients and analyzed 97 cases, involving an uncommon and recalcitrant subtype of lung cancer that would not ease with conventional therapies such as platinum-based chemotherapy.

The initial results of the trial were presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology's annual meeting in Chicago in mid-June and were peer reviewed and published by The Lancet Respiratory Medicine journal on Dec. 12.

This new drug was developed by Dizal, a biopharmaceutical company based in eastern China's Jiangsu province.

“It's an impressive outcome because previously, other potential candidates could only achieve a response rate below 50% for this lung cancer subgroup,” the newspaper quoted a chief scientist from a major biotech company as saying.​​​​​​​