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ESMO conference: Eli Lilly's oral drug shrinks certain thyroid cancers in study

Eli Lilly and Co.'s experimental drug selpercatinib shrank thyroid cancers with a certain genetic mutation in an early-stage study.

Selpercatinib is an oral drug being evaluated as a treatment for patients whose cancers have abnormalities in the rearranged during transfection, or RET, kinase.

There are two population types that make up RET-altered thyroid cancers: RET-mutant medullary thyroid cancer, or MTC, and RET fusion-positive thyroid cancers.

The company tested selpercatinib in a phase 1/2 trial named Libretto-001 in 55 patients with RET-mutant MTC who had previously been treated with cabozantinib or vandetanib. Cabozantinib is sold by Exelixis Inc. under the brand names Cabometyx and Cometriq, while vandetanib is sold by Sanofi under the name Caprelsa.

As of the June 17 data cut-off date, selpercatinib treatment reduced thyroid cancer in 56% of RET-mutant MTC patients.

The Indianapolis-based company — which gained access to the drug, also known as Loxo-292, after it acquired Loxo Oncology Inc. for $8 billion earlier in 2019 — presented the data at the European Society for Medical Oncology's 2019 scientific meeting.

Eli Lilly also presented the results of selpercatinib in 76 RET-mutant MTC patients who were not previously treated with cabozantinib or vandetanib. Selpercatinib treatment resulted in a reduction of the cancer in 59% of these patients.

Another analysis of 26 heavily pretreated patients with RET fusion-positive thyroid cancer showed selpercatinib treatment led to a reduction in the cancer of 62% of patients.

A safety analysis of all 531 patients enrolled in the trial showed the medicine was well-tolerated—only nine patients discontinued the therapy due to adverse events related to the treatment.

Selpercatinib received breakthrough designation for the treatment of certain patients with metastatic RET-fusion-positive non-small cell lung cancer; RET-mutant medullary thyroid cancer; and advanced RET-fusion-positive thyroid cancer.

The European Society for Medical Oncology is holding its 2019 scientific meeting in Barcelona, where more than 3,900 study abstracts have been submitted for review by oncology professionals from around the world.