Amgen's Imdelltra combo cuts risk of death by 58% in lung cancer
A clinical trial shows that combining Amgen's Imdelltra with AstraZeneca's Imfinzi significantly reduces the risk of death in patients with extensive-stage small cell lung cancer. The combination therapy extended median survival to 21.1 months, potentially transforming the standard of care for this aggressive disease.
Why it matters
This breakthrough offers a major advancement in treating a notoriously difficult-to-manage cancer, with significant commercial implications for the pharmaceutical companies involved.
A drug from Amgen could give patients with a notoriously aggressive form of lung cancer significantly more time to live when added to an immunotherapy from AstraZeneca , a study found.
Full results from a late-stage trial released Saturday show that adding Amgen's immunotherapy Imdelltra to AstraZeneca's Imfinzi drug slashed the risk of death by 58% in patients with extensive-stage small cell lung cancer, a fast-growing disease that has spread beyond the lung where it began.
The drug combination extended their median overall survival to 21.1 months compared with 12.7 months with AstraZeneca's drug alone, the trial found.
That means half of patients in the group that took the combination regimen were alive for at least roughly 21 months. The trial tested the combo as a maintenance therapy in patients who received initial treatment with Imfinzi and chemotherapy, and whose cancer had not progressed.
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