AstraZeneca PLC (LSE:AZN) reported notable progress in ongoing trials of patients with metastatic breast cancer using a combination of drugs, Enhertu and pertuzumab.
Enhertu, jointly developed by the Anglo-Swedish drug company and Japan's Daiichi Sankyo, is being combined with Roche's pertuzumab in the DESTINY-Breast09 Phase III trials, and showed a statistically significant and clinically meaningful improvement in progression-free survival.
In other words, the treatment helped patients live longer without their cancer getting worse.
“This is the first trial in more than a decade to demonstrate superior efficacy across a broad HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer patient population compared to the current 1st-line standard of care,” said Susan Galbraith, AstraZeneca’s executive vice president for oncology.
In tests as a first-line treatment, the combination outperformed the current standard drug combo of taxane, trastuzumab and pertuzumab (THP), with progression-free survival benefit seen across all patient subgroups.
Interim data also showed a trend toward improved overall survival.
A second arm of the trial, which is assessing Enhertu as a single 'monotherapy', will continue to final analysis.
Enhertu, an antibody drug conjugate, is already approved in over 75 countries as a second-line treatment based on previous clinical results.