AstraZeneca’s Lynparza can put brakes on ovarian cancer

By PharmaCompass

2018-10-25

Impressions: 137 Article

AstraZeneca’s Lynparza — a drug that blocks a cancer cell’s ability to repair its genetic code — has shown strong benefits for women newly diagnosed with ovarian cancer.

According to the findings of a trial known as SOLO-1, when given as a maintenance therapy to reinforce initial chemotherapy, Lynparza halted or reversed tumor growth in 60 percent of patients three years into the trial. The findings were unveiled at the European Society for Medical Oncology meeting in Munich on October 21.

The patients had a particular mutation, known as BRCA. Cancer cells with BRCA mutation have a diminished ability to restore their DNA when it gets damaged during cell division, which is a driver behind cancerous mutations.

Lynparza and other drugs in the class of PARP inhibitors are designed to block what remains of that DNA repair mechanism. This way, BRCA-mutated cancer cells fail to replicate and the tumor is no longer able to sustain itself.

Only 28 percent of those in a chemotherapy-only control group were spared tumor progression at that stage.

At year four, the progression-free survival (PFS) rate in the Lynparza group was still above 50 percent, against 11 percent for chemotherapy alone.

“The results ... herald a new era in treatment for women diagnosed with advanced ovarian cancer who carry a BRCA mutation,” said Kathleen Moore, associate professor at the University of Oklahoma’s Stephenson Cancer Center.

Lynparza was initially approved in 2014 by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in late-stage BRCA-mutated ovarian cancer. Last year, AstraZeneca and Merck agreed to collaborate in developing and commercializing the medicine. AstraZeneca generated US$ 297 million in Lynparza sales last year. According to Refinitiv data, analysts on average, see US$ 2 billion in revenue from the drug in 2023.

Roche’s Tecentriq slows aggressive breast cancer: An immunotherapy drug from Roche — Tecentriq — helped slow an aggressive type of breast cancer where new treatments have been elusive.

According to the trial data, Tecentriq showed positive results in the treatment of triple-negative tumors, which affect 15 percent of breast cancer patients.

The drug’s benefit was shown to be greatest among the roughly 40 percent of trial participants who had high levels of a protein known as PD-L1.

Those women lived a median 7.5 months without their disease worsening with Roche’s Tecentriq plus chemotherapy as an initial treatment, compared with five months for those getting chemotherapy alone (a current treatment standard).

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“ The article is based on the information available in public and which the author believes to be true. The author is not disseminating any information, which the author believes or knows, is confidential or in conflict with the privacy of any person. The views expressed or information supplied through this article is mere opinion and observation of the author. The author does not intend to defame, insult or, cause loss or damage to anyone, in any manner, through this article.”

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