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MUNICH: Roche's entrectinib-based cancer pill has been shown to reduce tumors in 57% of patients in a uniquely identifiable group by genetic profile, Swiss drug maker challenging Bayer's alliance with Loxo Oncology in a new targeted treatment area.
The results of tests on patients with a gene abnormality known as the NTRK fusion, which occurs at less than 1% of several types of tumors, were presented at the annual conference of the European Society of Medical Oncology ( ESMO) in Munich this Sunday.
German partners Bayer and the United States, Loxo, in turn published data on their competing compound, larotrectinib, which slightly improved previous high-efficiency readings in a larger trial.
Traditionally, oncologists made treatment decisions based on where the tumor originated in the body, helped increasingly by the growing knowledge of the complex genetic factors of cancer.
Under the agnostic approach of tumors, also known as pan-tumors, drug manufacturers ignore the perspective of the original organs and group patients based solely on genetic mutations of signature, but the success in the real life will depend on the rapid diffusion of comprehensive gene sequencing tools. for tissue samples.
Individually, mutations are so rare that it is unlikely that the cancer units will perform dedicated tests for each one.
The Roche Foundation Foundation provides complete kits, in competition with Thermo Fisher Scientific and Caris Life Sciences.
"This is one of the reasons we acquired Foundation Medicine, to introduce this complete genomic profiling routine at the onset of the disease," said Daniel O. Day, Roche's Pharmaceuticals Division Leader. .
Loxo's larotrectinib pill, co-developed with Bayer, showed last year that it was narrowing tumors in 75% of patients with the NTRK fusion gene abnormality, occurring in the lung , the pancreas or more than a dozen other organs.
On Sunday, the response rate to larotrectinib in an expanded group of 122 study participants – compared with 55 initially and now on 24 types of tumors – was established at 81%.
Roche said the results of the two NTRK fusion tests were not comparable because they consisted of different types of patients. The Loxo study, for example, included some cancers in children, while Roche plans to study them separately.
The Roche compound is designed to fight against several oncogenic mutations. Last month, he released data on tumor-retaining entrectinib in 77% of lung cancer patients with a mutation called ROS1.
The Merck & Co Keytruda, in May of last year, became the first drug to gain approval for multi-tumoral use, although this market remains relatively small for the mega-reseller drug. Bayer and Loxo test a second pan-tumor drug, LOXO-195.
O 'Day, of Roche Pharmaceutical Pharmaceutical, has hosted a larger field.
"The two things must happen: you need genomic profiling and enough targeted drugs to encourage doctors to make this diagnosis very comprehensive in advance.It is the world in which we are entering, "he said.
Although response rates may encourage a race for more drugs of this type, the need for genetic mutations or adequate mergers will be a daunting challenge, said Ulrik Lassen, Copenhagen's Rigshospitalet oncologist, co-author of the 39, study on larotrectinib.
"You have to look at a lot of patients to find the needle in the haystack, the method is complicated, expensive, and time consuming, and when we use these technologies better, we can find more oncogenic fusions and the companies will smart enough to find the agents that target them. "
Roche acquired Entrectinib under its US $ 1.7 billion acquisition agreement with Ignyta Inc., a US $ 1.7 billion drug company, last December.
Immuno-oncology remains another major area of activity for Roche, which has also released positive results regarding the use of its drug Tecentriq in a group of patients with cancer. breast and whose prognosis is particularly dark.
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