AstraZeneca makes progress with two breast cancer treatments

AstraZeneca issued favourable updates on two of its breast cancer treatments on Monday - ‘Truqap’, or capivasertib, and ‘Enhertu’, or trastuzumab deruxtecan - following encouraging results from respective phase three trials.

The FTSE 100 pharmaceuticals giant’s first update was on Truqap in combination with ‘Faslodex’, or fulvestrant, targeting adult patients with oestrogen receptor (ER)-positive, HER2‑negative locally advanced or metastatic breast cancer who had experienced recurrence or progression after prior endocrine-based therapy.

It said it had been recommended for approval in the EU, based on findings from the CAPItello-291 phase three trial, published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

The trial showed a significant reduction in the risk of disease progression or death by 50% when Truqap was administered alongside Faslodex, compared to Faslodex alone.

Truqap exhibited a median progression-free survival of 7.3 months versus 3.1 months with Faslodex alone.

Given the prevalence of HR-positive breast cancer and the frequency of mutations in PIK3CA, AKT1, and PTEN, the recommendation held promise for patients seeking alternative treatments after developing resistance to conventional therapies.

“Today's news reinforces the practice-changing potential of Truqap in combination with Faslodex to extend the effectiveness of endocrine-based treatment approaches for patients who experience tumour progression on, or resistance to widely used endocrine-based therapies,” said the company’s executive vice-president of oncology research and development, Susan Galbraith.

“This recommendation recognises the high unmet need in this biomarker-specific patient population, and if approved, patients in Europe with this specific type of disease may be able to benefit from this first-in-class treatment option.”

At the same time, the firm said the DESTINY-Breast06 phase three trial showed positive outcomes for Enhertu in patients with HR-positive, HER2-low metastatic breast cancer who had undergone one or more lines of endocrine therapy.

It said the trial demonstrated a statistically significant and clinically meaningful improvement in progression-free survival compared to standard-of-care chemotherapy.

Moreover, the improvement was consistent across patients with HER2-low and HER2-ultra low expression, indicating the potential efficacy of Enhertu across varying levels of HER2 expression.

While overall survival data are pending further analysis, early trends suggested a favourable outcome with Enhertu compared to standard-of-care chemotherapy.

“DESTINY-Breast06 shows that Enhertu could become a new standard of care for patients with HER2-low and HER2-ultralow metastatic breast cancer following one or more lines of endocrine therapy,” Susan Galbraith added.

“These data underscore the potential for treatment with Enhertu across the spectrum of HR-positive breast cancer, further redefining the treatment of metastatic breast cancer.”

Reporting by Josh White for Sharecast.com.