AstraZeneca and Daiichi Sankyo’s datopotamab deruxtecan (Dato-DXd) has shown promising results in patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), data from a phase 1b clinical trial has shown.
Initial results from the TROPION-Lung02 study were presented at the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer 2022 World Conference on Lung Cancer.
TROPION-Lung02 is an ongoing global, open-label trial evaluating the safety and efficacy of the antibody drug conjugate in combination with Merck’s – known as MSD outside the US and Canada – PD-1 inhibitor, Keytruda (pembrolizumab), with or without platinum chemotherapy in both previously-untreated and pretreated patients with advanced NSCLC who do not have genetic mutations that would warrant targeted therapies.
The data presented demonstrated an overall response rate of 37% when Dato-DXd was combined with Keytruda, and rose to 41% when including chemotherapy. A disease control rate of 84% was seen with both the doublet and triplet combination therapy in the overall population that comprised both first-line and second-line settings.
Combinations with Dato-DXd demonstrated a tolerable safety profile, supporting further evaluation in ongoing studies.
Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide. NSCLC is diagnosed at an advanced stage in nearly 50% of patients and often has a poor prognosis with worsening outcomes after each line of subsequent therapy.
There are treatment options available for those diagnosed with stage 3 NSCLC, however if a patient progresses to stage 4 – otherwise known as metastatic cancer – the options available to that patient are often limited to the prolonging of life and supportive care provisions.
“Many patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer still experience disease progression following initial treatment, underscoring the need for new therapeutic approaches,” said Benjamin Philip Levy, clinical director of medical oncology, Johns Hopkins Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center at Sibley Memorial Hospital, associate professor of oncology at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and investigator in the TROPION-Lung02 trial.
He added: “The initial results from the TROPION-Lung02 trial show encouraging efficacy and safety results when combining [Dato-DXd] and [Keytruda] with or without platinum chemotherapy and warrant further study in the first-line metastatic setting.”