AstraZeneca with promising results from clinics for Imfinzi and Enhertu

AstraZeneca on Friday reported several clinical results from its studies, including Imfinzi and Enhertu, with meaningful outcomes.

AstraZeneca said in one of the press releases that Imfinzi plus tremelimumab demonstrated promising clinical activity and tolerability in patients with advanced liver cancer.
According to a press release, the results from the global Phase II Study 22 trial testing AstraZeneca’s tremelimumab, an anti-CTLA4 antibody, added to Imfinzi (durvalumab) demonstrated promising clinical activity and tolerability in patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). HCC is the most common type of liver cancer.

Imfinzi also showed a sustained overall survival benefit in 1st-line extensive-stage small cell lung cancer in the Phase III CASPIAN trial, AstraZeneca said.
Detailed results from an updated analysis of the Phase III CASPIAN trial showed AstraZeneca’s Imfinzi (durvalumab) in combination with a choice of chemotherapies, etoposide plus either carboplatin or cisplatin, demonstrated a sustained, clinically meaningful overall survival (OS) benefit for adults with extensive-stage small cell lung cancer (ES-SCLC) treated in the 1st-line setting.

R. Kate Kelley, the principal investigator said that these exciting results suggest that dual checkpoint blockade with tremelimumab and Imfinzi may have a role in a challenging cancer where patients have few treatment options.

The company also said in another announcement that its Enhertu achieved a tumour response rate of 45.3% in patients with HER2-positive metastatic colorectal cancer in Phase II DESTINY-CRC01 trial. According to that PR, the results from the Phase II DESTINY-CRC01 trial of AstraZeneca and Daiichi Sankyo Company, Limited (Daiichi Sankyo)’s Enhertu (trastuzumab deruxtecan) demonstrated clinically meaningful activity in patients with HER2-positive unresectable and/or metastatic colorectal cancer who received at least two prior lines of standard treatment.

Salvatore Siena, the principal investigator, said the results from DESTINY-CRC01 in patients with HER2-positive advanced colorectal cancer are striking and warrant further research, especially considering many of these patients have had numerous prior therapies.

Enhertu also demonstrated meaningful clinical activity in patients with HER2-mutant non-small cell lung cancer in interim analysis of Phase II DESTINY-Lung01 trial, AstraZeneca said.
Results from the ongoing Phase II DESTINY-Lung01 trial showed Enhertu achieved a clinically meaningful tumour response in patients with HER2-mutant (HER2m) unresectable and/or metastatic non-squamous non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) whose disease had progressed following one or more systemic therapies.

Egbert F. Smit, from the Netherlands Cancer Institute, Amsterdam, Netherlands and principal investigator of the DESTINY-Lung01 trial, said: “Understanding additional molecular targets for treatment, such as HER2, is critical to advancing treatment options for these patients and the results seen in the DESTINY-Lung01 trial are very encouraging.”

Furthermore, Enhertu significantly improved tumour response rate and overall survival in HER2-positive metastatic gastric cancer in Phase II DESTINY-Gastric01 trial, AstraZeneca also said.
It said that detailed results from the positive, registrational, randomised controlled Phase II DESTINY-Gastric01 trial showed Enhertu (trastuzumab deruxtecan) demonstrated a statistically significant and clinically meaningful improvement in objective response rate (ORR) and overall survival (OS), a key secondary endpoint, versus chemotherapy.

Kohei Shitara, from National Cancer Center Hospital East, Chiba, Japan and principal investigator in the phase 2 DESTINY-Gastric01 trial, said that, based on the compelling results of the DESTINY-Gastric01 trial,ENHERTU has the potential to become a new standard of care for these patients.