LONDON (Alliance News) - AstraZeneca PLC on Tuesday said its Lynparza drug produced a higher objective response rate than chemotherapy in advanced ovarian cancer and improved progression-free survival during a trial.
Results of the phase three Solo3 trial, in which 266 patients with relapsed BRCA-mutated advanced ovarian cancer were enrolled, showed a 72% objective response rate with Lynparza compared to a 51% objective response rate from chemotherapy.
BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes help suppress the growth of tumours, and mutations in these genes is associated with an increased risk of cancer.
Lynparza also improved the median time patients lived without disease progression by more than four months to 13.4 months versus 9.2 months with chemotherapy.
AstraZeneca said that, based on the results of the trial, "Lynparza is the first and only PARP inhibitor to demonstrate efficacy versus chemotherapy". PARP is an enzyme in cells that helps to repair damaged DNA, and so inhibiting this enzyme prevents cancer cells from repairing themselves.
Jose Baselga, executive vice president of Oncology Research & Development at Astra said: "Lynparza provides a much-needed alternative and improvement over standard-of-care chemotherapy for patients with BRCA-mutated, advanced ovarian cancer. This is the fourth positive phase two/three trial in advanced ovarian cancer for Lynparza, across multiple lines of therapy. We look forward to working closely with regulatory authorities to include findings from this trial in the prescribing information for Lynparza."
Shares in AstraZeneca were down 0.4% at 5,921.00 pence on Tuesday morning.
Astrazeneca (AZN)