A pill has been shown to halve the risk of death from a certain type of lung cancer when taken daily, according to clinical trial data released in Chicago at the largest annual conference of cancer specialists.

Taking the drug osimertinib, which is marketed under the name Tagrisso, dramatically reduced the risk of death by 51 percent in patients whose tumours were removed surgically, according to the results presented at an American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) meeting on Sunday.