FRANKFURT, Sept 9 (Reuters) - AstraZeneca's cancertreatment Imfinzi has been shown to prolong survival in aparticularly aggressive type of lung cancer by close to threemonths, as the British drugmaker holds its ground in a crowdedfield against rival immunotherapy drugs.
Imfinzi, when combined with chemotherapy, resulted in amedian 13 months survival in a late-stage small cell lung cancertrial, the British drugmaker said on Monday, adding trialdetails to a brief statement published in June.
Patients in a reference group on chemotherapy only lived amedian 10.3 months in the so-called Caspian trial, it said.
"There is a wide recognition that in small cell lung cancerthere is very much a need for new therapies," said DaveFredrickson, head of the company's oncology business.
"There is a clear imperative that chemotherapy alone is notdelivering the outcomes that we desire for patients because thedisease is so aggressive."
AstraZeneca has already carved out a niche for Imfinzi,which enables the immune system to detect and attack certaincancer cells, in the more common non-small cell lung cancer(NSCLC) setting, with approval for tumours that have only spreadin the chest.
Merck & Co's immunotherapy bestseller Keytruda hasbecome the standard treatment option for the larger group ofNSCLC patients that are diagnosed at a more advanced stage ofthe disease.
In the small cell type of cancer, Astra is seeking to catchup with Roche, whose immunotherapy Tecentriq won U.S.approval for the disease type in March.
After 18 months, a third of the patients on Imfinzi andchemotherapy were alive, compared with only about one quarter inthe comparable group on chemotherapy only, AstraZeneca said.
Imfinzi generated $633 million in sales last year.(Reporting by Ludwig Burger; Editing by Jan Harvey)