BeiGene Ltd.'s tislelizumab extended the life of patients with a type of lung cancer while keeping the disease at bay in a late-stage trial.

Tislelizumab is a PD-1 inhibitor that helps boost the body's immune response against cancer cells.

The combination of tislelizumab and two chemotherapy medicines — carboplatin and paclitaxel — served as the initial treatment for patients with squamous non-small cell lung cancer, or NSCLC, a type of cancer that starts in the cells that line the lungs' airways.

BeiGene said in a news release that there were 770,000 new cases of lung cancer in China in 2018 and was the leading cause of cancer-related death in the year in both men and women with about 690,500 deaths. NSCLC comprises the most common form of lung cancer in China.

In the phase 3 study, patients receiving the combination of tislelizumab and the chemotherapy drugs lived longer without the disease worsening compared to the patients who just received carboplatin and paclitaxel.

BeiGene intends to submit a supplemental new drug application to China's National Medical Products Administration for the therapy. It will present data from the study at an upcoming medical meeting.

In December 2019, the National Medical Products Administration approved tislelizumab to treat patients with classical Hodgkin's lymphoma who have received at least two prior therapies.