Roche’s Tecentriq plus chemo shows promise in first-line, advanced bladder cancer

pharmafile | October 1, 2019 | News story | Manufacturing and Production, Research and Development |  Cancer, ESMO 2019, Roche, breast cancer, pharma, tecentriq 

Roche has revealed data from an interim analysis of its immunotherapy Tecentriq (atezolizumab) at the 2019 European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) congress, showing promising performance in combination with platinum-based chemotherapy in the first-line treatment of previously untreated locally advanced or metastatic urothelial carcinoma (mUC) eligible and ineligible for cisplatin chemotherapy.

The Tecentriq combo demonstrated a “statistically significant improvement” in progression-free survival (PFS) of 8.2 months compared to 6.3 months with chemotherapy alone.

In overall survival, Tecentriq was shown to extend life by a median of 16 months compared to 13.4 months with chemo alone, but these data had not achieved statistical significance at this point in the study.

The drug was also tested as a monotherapy, showing “encouraging” overall survival results in patients with high PD-L1 expression, but these data were not formally tested.

“We are pleased with these positive results from the IMvigor130 study, which show Tecentriq plus chemotherapy may provide a meaningful benefit for people newly diagnosed with advanced bladder cancer,” said Dr Sandra Horning, Chief Medical Officer and Head of Global Product Development. “There remains a high unmet need for people with advanced bladder cancer, where chemotherapy alone is the current standard of care. These results reinforce the role of immunotherapy in treating this aggressive disease.”

Matt Fellows