Archived article
Please note that tax, investment, pension and ISA rules can change and the information and any views contained in this article may now be inaccurate.
Pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca said a venture with Daiichi Sankyo had recorded positive clinical trial results for a gastric cancer treatment.
The trial showed that the trastuzumab deruxtecan treatment, dubbed Enhertu, demonstrated a statistically significant improvement in objective response rate and overall survival, a key secondary endpoint, versus chemotherapy.
The trial evaluated patients with HER2-positive unresectable or metastatic gastric or gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma that had progressed following two or more treatment regimens including trastuzumab and chemotherapy.
The confirmed objective response rate was 42.9% with Enhertu monotherapy compared to 12.5% with investigator's choice of chemotherapy.
Ten complete responses and 41 partial responses were seen in patients treated with Enhertu versus no CRs and seven PRs seen in patients treated with chemotherapy.
Patients treated with Enhertu had a 41% reduction in the risk of death versus patients treated with chemotherapy.
The median overall survival was 12.5 months versus 8.4 months with chemotherapy. The estimated overall survival rate at one year in the Enhertu arm was 52.1% and 28.9% with the chemotherapy arm.
Separately, AstraZeneca said results from an updated analysis of a trial of its Imfinzi treatment, in combination with a choice of chemotherapies, demonstrated a sustained, clinically meaningful overall survival benefit for adults with small cell lung cancer.
At 2:56pm: (LON:AZN) Astrazeneca PLC share price was +165.5p at 8863.5p