MetMab produces exciting results in lung cancer patients
pharmafile | May 19, 2011 | News story | Research and Development | MetMAb, Roche
Roche’s MetMab has shown huge promise in phase II trials in lung cancer – but only in patients with ‘high Met’ tumours.
Results from the study of 137 patients suggest the drug could be a major breakthrough in extending the lives of this sub-group of patients with non small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).
Around 50% of NSCLC patients are high Met, meaning that many could benefit from the drug.
Met is a receptor, expressed on the surface of some cells, which is thought to play a role in numerous cancers, including lung cancer. By blocking the action of Met, the drug inhibits the growth, replication and spread of the tumour.
High Met patients benefited greatly from the drug, showing an average doubling of their Progression Free Survival from 1.5 months to 2.9 months.
Most exciting of all, the drug tripled the length of overall survival in these patients, from 3.8 months to 12.6 months. This was, however, only a secondary endpoint of the study, and will require larger trials to back up the findings.
High Met lung cancer patients currently have a particularly poor prognosis, but if the drug is able to replicate the results in larger trials, these patients could see their prognosis become better than other NSCLC patients.
As with other targeted cancer therapies, patients must have a diagnostic test to establish if they have a high or low Met tumour.
“The unique design of MetMab and the development of a companion diagnostic test allowed us to target a specific pathway that may be driving cancer growth,” said Hal Barron, chief medical officer and head, global product development. “These results support further investigation of MetMab as a potential personalised medicine for people with lung cancer and we plan to start a phase III study later this year.”
In contrast to patients with high Met tumours, those with low Met tumours on the trial actually fared worse with the drug than those who did not receive it.
When all the results from the trials’ patients with high and low Met expression were combined, the MetMab and Tarceva combination did not show a statistically significant improvement in PFS compared to Tarceva alone, confirming the drug’s specific action on the Met marker.
The study results will be presented in greater detail at the American Society for Clinical Oncology (ASCO) congress in Chicago, which begins on 4 June.
Andrew McConaghie
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