AstraZeneca PLC, Merck & Co. Inc. and Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. took much of the limelight at the European Society for Medical Oncology congress in Madrid with positive data on their drugs.
AstraZeneca unveiled details of two key clinical trials tackling lung cancer in different ways.
The company's immunotherapy Imfinzi and another drug, Tagrisso, significantly extended progression-free survival, or the period of time patients live without their disease worsening.
Imfinzi delayed the disease from worsening for 16.8 months compared to the standard treatment option, in patients with inoperable non-small cell lung cancer.
Meanwhile, in the phase 3 Flaura trial, Tagrisso reduced the risk of disease progression or death in patients by more than half in adult patients with locally advanced or EGFR-mutated non-small cell lung cancer. The time patients could go without their illness progressing was 18.9 months for the drug versus 10.2 months for the current standard of care.
"The Flaura data are likely to result in a major paradigm shift in the treatment of patients with EGFR mutation-positive advanced lung cancer," said Suresh Ramalingam, principal investigator of the Flaura trial, from the Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University in Atlanta.
Merck and Bristol-Myers' drugs boost immunotherapy space
New clinical data presented at the meeting showed Merck's immunotherapy Keytruda offered several benefits to patients suffering from different types of cancer, either when given on its own or with chemotherapy.
Keytruda, in combination with chemotherapy, maintained its efficacy as a first-line advanced lung cancer treatment, with 57% of patients seeing a reduction in tumor size, versus 32% in the chemotherapy-only regimen.
The drug also lengthened survival in patients with advanced cancers of the bladder or pelvis who took the drug after chemotherapy, compared with patients treated with an alternative chemotherapy.
Merck also presented data on Keytruda in late-stage gastric, or stomach, cancer. The medicine showed "promising response rate" in patients suffering from late-stage gastric, or stomach, cancer.
A treatment combining Bristol-Myers Squibb's immunotherapies Opdivo and Yervoy reduced the risk of death in kidney cancer patients by 37%. The drug combination also succeeded in reducing the size of tumors of all patients in the study.
Credit Suisse analyst Vamil Divan said in a Sept. 11 note that he continues to expect the combination to show added benefit in some patients but wonders if the benefit will be "sufficient enough" to justify the potential added toxicity and the additional cost the treatment would likely entail.
Separately, Opdivo improved survival rate against the standard chemotherapy docetaxel in two trials for patients with previously treated metastatic non-small cell lung cancer. The drug also proved to be a better option to treat melanoma patients who have had surgery to remove tumors, compared with an older treatment using Yervoy.
Data showed progress across cancer types among patients in a few of Roche Holding AG's clinical trials.
Alecensa reduced the risk of disease progression to the brain in patients with advanced anaplastic lymphoma kinase-positive non-small cell lung cancer. Among patients with the disease, Alecensa reduced the risk of disease progression in the central nervous system, or CNS, compared with Pfizer Inc.'s Xalkori.
Roche unit Genentech Inc.'s cancer drug taselisib helped shrink the tumors of early breast cancer patients after only 16 weeks of treatment. Patients who received taselisib with letrozole before surgery had a better objective response rate as compared to placebo.
Taselisib worked particularly well among patients who had PIK3CA mutant cancer cells detected at baseline, with 56.2% showing an objective response rate compared to 38% of patients in the placebo group.
However, Roche's skin cancer drug, Zelboraf, failed to significantly reduce the risk of recurrence in patients with stage 3C melanoma.
Updates also came from drug companies like Novartis AG, Eisai Co. Ltd. and Eli Lilly and Co.
Data released at the meeting showed Novartis' Tafinlar combined with chemotherapy treatment trametinib doubled relapse-free survival in patients with late stage melanoma.
Eisai's anti-cancer drug Lenvima slowed the deterioration of five health-related quality of life domains in patients with advanced liver cancer compared to Bayer AG's Nexavar.
Eli Lilly's experimental breast cancer drug abemaciclib, when combined with endocrine therapy, significantly improved survival and stopped the disease spreading, compared with just treating patients with endocrine therapy. In the trial, 59% of patients on the drug had their tumors shrink, against 44% for those on a placebo.
"This first line breast cancer trial is one of the most important trials for Lilly's abemaciclib and will compete with Pfizer's Ibrance," Evercore analyst Umer Raffat said. He pointed out that Ibrance was initially approved with a warning for blood clots in the lungs. This warning was removed in March 2017, possibly because the Pfizer treatment showed a lower level of blood clot versus a comparator drug in the Paloma 3 trials.
"However, based on the results from Monarch 3, perhaps Lilly's abemaciclib may end up getting a warning on the label," Raffat said.
Roche blood test — changing landscape in precision medicine
A new blood test being developed by Roche and Foundation Medicine Inc. can accurately measure the number of mutations within a tumor, which could help in predicting which patients may best respond to immunotherapies.
Belly fat ups cancer risk for post-menopausal women
The accumulation of abdominal fat in post-menopausal women is more important than body weight as an indicator of cancer risk.
In a study of 5,855 Danish women, researchers found that the ratio of abdominal fat to peripheral fat was a significant independent predictor of cancer diagnosis, and some 811 solid cancers were recorded in the women.
Stroke survivors at risk of cancer
Some stroke survivors may have underlying cancer, according to a study.
In a follow-up of stroke survivors undertaken by researchers in Madrid's Hospital de la Princesa, there were 29 diagnoses of cancer of the colon, prostate or lung. This compares with an expected incidence of 17 cases, according to statistics for the general population.
The incidence of cancer in stroke survivors was almost twice that of the general population, lead researcher Jacobo Rogado said.