Why Clinical Trials Don’t Have to Be Patients’ ‘Last Line of Defense’

Wendy Brooks told CURE® that she feels “blessed” to be part of a clinical trial evaluating the antibody-drug conjugate ABBV-706 in small cell lung cancer.

“I am at 65% reduction [of disease] from baseline based on where I was [before I started the trial] in the March, April time frame with those CT scans,” said Brooks, who has limited-stage small cell lung cancer. “We were doing nothing but shrinking and no spread and I cannot ask for any better results. To me, in this small cell cancer, that's huge. It's a huge win.”

Brooks received her diagnosis of lung cancer in July 2023 and underwent chemotherapy and radiation. The cancer eventually spread to her brain, for which she received Gamma Knife surgery, and then it returned to her lungs and spread to her lymph nodes.

ABBV-706 is currently the subject of a clinical trial to assess its safety, tolerability, pharmacokinetics and efficacy both as a stand-alone monotherapy and in combination with budigalimab, carboplatin or cisplatin in the treatment of small cell lung cancer, high-grade central nervous system tumors and high-grade neuroendocrine carcinoma, according to the National Cancer Institute.

Antibody-drug conjugates such as ABBV-706 are targeted therapies that contain a monoclonal antibody directed toward a target on a cancer cell that is linked to a cancer-killing drug payload.

“It was explained to me as it was a targeted therapy directly to the SEZ6 (seizure-related homolog 6 protein) expression that our cancer has,” said Brooks. “There's no testing for it, about 80% to 85% of the small cell patients have that expression. My doctor felt that … I was a good match for it, just based on — I don't have any other comorbidities to speak of that would limit me in choices for trials. … And boy, was he right. That was the best decision we could have made.”

A patient advocate for LiveLung, Brooks shared her advice for other patients who may be considering clinical trial enrollment.

Transcript:

CURE®: What advice do you have for any patients who may be considering enrolling in a clinical trial?

Wendy Brooks:I would definitely encourage folks [to enroll]. It's not your last line of defense. It's definitely [that] you are getting advanced treatment now, and helping not only you but others that are fighting this disease to be able to give us the data that's necessary in order to get these drugs approved for the masses. Because we don't have a whole lot of weapons in our arsenal, so to speak, and the clinical trials do give us that opportunity to test on a human and show those results, take the theory from the lab to the patient and be able to help all of us. Now it's selfish, a little bit, but it's also to help everybody else that's fighting this nasty disease.

Transcript has been edited for clarity and conciseness.

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