AstraZeneca says cancer drug Imfinzi improves survival chances in late-stage trial

[March 09, 2023]  (Reuters) - Lung cancer patients treated with AstraZeneca's immunotherapy Imfinzi pre- and post-surgery in a trial lived significantly longer without the disease progressing or recurring than those treated with chemotherapy, the drugmaker said on Thursday.

The late-stage study compared patients with resectable, early-stage, non-small cell lung cancer who were treated with Imfinzi along with chemotherapy before surgery and as a monotherapy after surgery, to patients treated with chemotherapy pre-surgery.

Imfinzi was well tolerated and there were no new safety concerns before and after surgery, AstraZeneca said.

AstraZeneca's cancer medicine Imfinzi is seen in this undated handout image provided to Reuters, June 30, 2022. AstraZeneca/Handout via REUTERS

The drug had failed the main goal of a trial in patients with a form of late-stage lung cancer, Astrazeneca had said in December.

In that late-stage study, Imfinzi was tested as a monotherapy against platinum-based chemotherapy in non-small cell lung cancer patients whose tumour cells express high levels of PD-L1.

(Reporting by Yadarisa Shabong in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D'Souza)

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