Roche's Tecentriq meets targets in lung cancer trial

ZURICH: A combination of Roche’s Tecentriq immunotherapy with chemotherapy helped people with a form of lung cancer live significantly longer than patients on chemotherapy alone, a late-stage trial cited by the Swiss drugmaker showed.

The phase III IMpower130 study met its co-primary endpoints of overall survival and progression-free survival in the initial treatment of advanced non-squamous non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), Roche said. No new safety signals emerged in the trial.

Roche has eight Phase III lung cancer studies underway evaluating Tecentriq alone or in combination with other medicines. This was the third positive Phase III study evaluating Tecentriq alone or in combination to demonstrate an overall survival benefit for people with NSCLC, it said.

Roche’s hopes of Tecentriq catching up with rival medicines from Merck and Bristol-Myers Squibb were dealt a blow earlier this month, however, when it failed a key combination trial in colorectal cancer.