LONDON (Alliance News) - AstraZeneca PLC on Sunday announced encouraging results from phase three trials of its cancer drugs Lynparza and Imfinzi.
The drug maker presented three-year overall survival data from its Polo trial of Lynparza in pancreatic cancer and from its Pacific trial of Imfinzi in stage-three non-small cell lung cancer.
More than twice as many patients taking Lynparza had no disease progression at one year - 34% with Lynparza versus 15% on placebo. After two years, 22% of patients with Lynparza had no progression compared to 15% on placebo.
Lynparza improved the time without disease progression by a median of 7.4 months compared to 3.8 months with placebo in patients with germline BRCA-mutated metastatic pancreatic cancer. BRCA genes are involved in tumour suppression and mutations are associated with a number of cancers.
Jose Baselga, executive vice president of oncology research & development at Astra said: "These unprecedented results raise new hope for patients that have seen little progress over a long period of time. From as early as six months after initiation, more than twice as many patients taking Lynparza lived without progression of their disease compared to those on placebo, and we are now working with regulatory authorities to bring Lynparza to patients as quickly as possible."
Lynparza is now the first PARP inhibitor to have demonstrated a benefit in three different types of cancer. It is presently approved in more than 60 countries to treat advanced ovarian cancer and in more than 40 countries for advanced breast cancer.
For Imfinzi, data showed 57% of lung cancer patients who had not had disease progression following concurrent chemoradiation therapy, and who were taking the drug, were alive at three years compared to 44% with the placebo following concurrent chemoradiation therapy.
Dave Fredrickson, executive vice president of Astra's oncology business unit said: "These findings for Imfinzi are another example of our focus on bringing long-term survival benefits to patients who still have a chance of being cured. These three-year survival results further establish the Pacific regimen as the standard of care for these patients, and we are optimistic this survival trend will continue as we move towards the five-year landmark in this curative-intent setting."
The results follow the primary two-year overall survival analysis published in 2018 showing significant benefit versus placebo following concurrent chemoradiation therapy, with Imfinzi reducing the chance of death by 32%.
With the extra year, a 31% reduction in risk of death was maintained compared to placebo after concurrent chemoradiation therapy. Imfinzi's safety and tolerability was consistent with previous analysis.
Astra has a number of ongoing Imfinzi trials in earlier stages of non-small cell lung cancer, including in "potentially curative settings".
Astrazeneca (AZN)