A combination of AstraZeneca’s cancer drugs Imfinzi and Lynparza has shown positive results in a late-stage endometrial cancer trial when added to platinum-based chemotherapy.
The treatment followed by either Imfinzi plus Lynparza or Imfinzi alone as maintenance therapy showed a statistically meaningful improvement in progression-free survival (PFS) compared to standard-of-care chemotherapy, the pharma giant has said.
Overall survival (OS) data were immature at the time of this analysis, AstraZeneca researchers have explained. However, a favourable trend was observed for both treatment regimens.
Endometrial cancer, also known as womb cancer, is the sixth most common cancer in women worldwide, with over 417,000 patients diagnosed and over 97,000 deaths in 2020.
Although it is most common in women who have already been through the menopause, with the average age at diagnosis being over 60 years old, the number of diagnoses are expected to rise by almost 40 per cent by 2040.
The current standard of care for advanced endometrial cancer is chemotherapy. However, long-term outcomes in first-line endometrial cancer remain poor and novel treatment options are needed.
“These exciting data demonstrate durvalumab immunotherapy can significantly delay disease progression for patients with endometrial cancer and the addition of the PARP inhibitor olaparib can improve the benefit further,” said Shannon N. Westin, Professor of Gynaecologic Oncology and Reproductive Medicine at the University of Texas and principal investigator of the trial.
“These combinations could provide physicians with new treatment approaches to improve outcomes for patients.”
Susan Galbraith, executive vice president, oncology R&D at AstraZeneca, said: “This data demonstrates for the first time the power of combining immunotherapy and a PARP inhibitor to provide meaningful clinical improvements for patients with endometrial cancer.
“These results underscore our ambition to redefine cancer care and we hope to bring this innovative Imfinzi and Lynparza combination to endometrial cancer patients as soon as possible.”
The safety and tolerability profile of Imfinzi plus chemotherapy and of Imfinzi in combination with Lynparza was broadly consistent with that observed in prior clinical trials and the known profiles of the individual medicines, AstraZeneca has said.
The data will be presented at a forthcoming medical meeting, the British drugmaker added.
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