In 2020 the trial team published some early (interim) results for some of the groups in the National Lung Matrix Trial.
There are lots of different treatment groups in this trial and we don’t have results for all them yet. Some groups are still open for people to join (see ‘Trial design’ section above).
This is a summary of the results so far. We plan to update this page when more results are available.
Results
As of November 2019, the research team had looked for genetic changes in the lung cancer cells of 5,467 people:
- 2,007 people (37%) had a genetic change meaning they would be eligible to join the trial
- 288 people had joined the trial
14 of these 288 people had treatment as part of this trial, and then joined the trial again and had a different treatment.
Group A
This group was for people with a change to the FGFR2 or FGFR3 gene. They had a drug called AZD4547.
The research team had to close this group earlier than planned because the company stopped making AZD4547 part way through. At the time there were 5 people in the group, and the cancer had got smaller in 1 person.
Group B
There are several sub groups in Group B. People in these groups had a targeted cancer drug called vistusertib.
Group |
Gene with
change |
Time until the cancer
started to grow again |
Number of people
whose cancer got
smaller |
B1 |
TSC1 or TSC2 |
2.1 months |
0 out of 5 |
B2S |
STK11 |
2.3 months |
0 out of 17 |
B2D |
KRAS and STK11 |
2.9 months |
2 out of 25 |
Group C
There are several sub groups in Group C. People in these groups had a targeted cancer drug called palbocicilib.
There are 2 groups for people with a change in the CDKN2A gene:
- C1 is for people with a type of cancer called squamous cell cancer

- C2 is for people with a type of cancer called adenocarcinoma

Group |
Gene with
change |
Time until the cancer
started to grow |
Number of people
whose cancer got
smaller |
C1 |
CDKN2A |
4.2 months |
0 out of 19 |
C2 |
CDKN2A |
3.3 months |
1 out of 27 |
C3 |
CDK4 |
2.2 months |
0 out of 8 |
C4 |
CCND1 |
3.7 months |
0 out of 15 |
C5 |
KRAS and STK11 |
2.6 months |
0 out of 12 |
C6 |
KRAS |
5.3 months |
1 out of 30 |
Group D
There are several subgroups in Group D. People in these groups had a targeted cancer drug called crizotinib.
Group |
Gene with
change |
Time until the cancer
started to grow |
Number of people
whose cancer got
smaller |
D1 |
MET |
3.8 months |
0 out of 13 |
D2 |
ROS1 |
3 years and 9 months |
5 out of 7 |
D3 |
MET exon 14 |
12.5 months |
8 out of 12 |
Group D2 is now closed because crizotinib has been licensed as a treatment for this group of patients.
Group E
There are several subgroups in Group E. People in these groups had a targeted cancer drug called selumetinib and a chemotherapy drug called docetaxel.
There are 2 groups for people with a change in the NF1 gene:
- E1 is for people with a type of cancer called squamous cell cancer
- E2 is for people with a type of cancer called adenocarcinoma
Group |
Gene with
change |
Time until the cancer
started to grow |
Number of people
whose cancer got smaller |
E1 |
NF1 |
We don't have the results for this group yet |
|
E2 |
NF1 |
5.3 months |
4 out of 14 |
E3 |
NRAS |
We don't have the results for this group yet |
|
Group F
The people in this group had changes to the PIK3CA, PTEN or AKT gene. They had a targeted cancer drug called capivasertib.
The cancer didn’t get smaller in any of the 28 people in Group F. So the research team decided to close this group.
Group G
This group was for people with a change in the EGFR gene. They had a targeted cancer drug called osimertinib.
Group |
Gene with
change |
Time until the cancer
started to grow |
Number of people
whose cancer got
smaller
|
G1 |
EGFR |
1 year and 3.5 months |
8 out of 10 |
Group G1 is now closed because osimertinib has been licensed as a treatment for this group of patients.
Group H
This group is for people with a change in the RET gene. They had a targeted cancer drug called sitravatinib.
The trial team closed this group after research showed that other treatments worked for people with changes in the RET gene.
Group J
This group is for people with a change in the KRAS gene. They had targeted cancer drugs called ceralasertib and durvalumab.
We don’t have results for this group yet. We will update this information when the results are available in the future.
Group NA1
This group is for people who didn’t have a specific genetic change that could be matched to a drug. They had a targeted cancer drug called durvalumab.
This group is now closed but we don’t have the results yet. We will update this information when the results are available in the future.
Group NAJ
This group is also for people who didn’t have a specific genetic change that could be matched to a drug. They have targeted cancer drugs called ceralasertib and durvalumab.
We don’t have results for this group yet. We will update this information when the results are available in the future.
Smoking history
The research team looked at the differences between people who had smoked for a long time, those who smoked for short time and those who had never smoked.
They found that:
- treatment often worked better for people who had never smoked, or had only smoked for a short time
- people with squamous cell carcinoma who smoked did worse than those with other types of lung cancer
Conclusion
The research team have concluded that, so far, some treatments have not worked as well as they had hoped. Even when laboratory work has shown that a particular drug may work for people with a specific genetic change.
They hope to open new groups so they can look at different treatments.
They also suggest that treatment is more likely to work for people who have never not smoked, or not smoked for very long.
Where this information comes from
We have based this summary on information from the research team. The information they sent us has been reviewed by independent specialists (peer reviewed
) and published in a medical journal. The figures we quote above were provided by the trial team who did the research. We have not analysed the data ourselves.