The FDA has approved a treatment protocol for a particular type of lung cancer that combines chemotherapy and AstraZeneca’s popular cancer medicine Tagrisso, according to an announcement by the firm in a statement on Friday.

According to AstraZeneca, the FDA approved the medicine based on trials that increased the median progression-free survival (PFS) by almost nine months. The treatment would be used to treat patients with a kind of advanced lung cancer.

PFS is a word used to describe the length of time a patient’s disease does not worsen following therapy.

According to the Phase 3 trials, known as FLAURA2, the risk of death or disease progression decreased by 38% when chemotherapy was added to Tagrisso compared to Tagrisso alone.

The medicine received priority evaluation in October, and the agency has now approved it.

The medicine Tagrisso, which is approved as a monotherapy in over 100 countries including the United States, the European Union, China, and Japan, saw a 9% increase in sales in 2023.