Turn on cookies to sign in
Signing in saves your progress to your Curie account. We can only do that with cookies on — turn them on to continue.
An anti-inflammatory drug is showing early promise as a lung cancer prevention strategy. In a phase 2 trial, canakinumab — a drug that blocks the inflammatory protein IL-1β — shrank suspicious lung nodules in 10 out of 15 patients, with reductions up to 26%. The drug was well tolerated, with only mild to moderate side effects reported.
Could targeting inflammation stop lung cancer before it starts? Early results from the phase 2 Can-Prevent-Lung trial suggest it might. Canakinumab, a monoclonal antibody that blocks the inflammatory signaling protein IL-1β, reduced the size of high-risk indeterminate pulmonary nodules (IPNs) — suspicious lung spots that could become cancer — in the majority of patients tested, while being well tolerated.
The science behind this approach stems from research showing that age-related changes in the immune system, not the lung tissue itself, drive early lung cancer development. In preclinical models, blocking IL-1 signaling slowed tumor growth — but only when done early. That timing insight helps explain why canakinumab failed in trials of established lung cancer, yet showed a reduced cancer incidence signal in a cardiovascular trial where patients were treated earlier in the disease course.
By the Numbers:
Why it matters: For patients with high-risk lung nodules who can't tolerate surgery due to poor lung function, there are currently no good pharmacologic options. This trial offers an early but encouraging signal that immune-targeted therapy could one day intercept lung cancer before it fully develops.
