AstraZeneca's Lynparza improves survival in advanced prostate cancer

AstraZeneca's cancer treatment Lynparza has improved progression-free survival in advanced prostate cancer, but not overall survival, clinical trial data has shown.

The data, which was presented by the FTSE 100 drugmaker and partner Merck at an oncology conference in the US, showed that Lynparza plus standard-care drug abiraterone achieved a progression-free survival of 13.8 months versus 8.2 months for abiraterone alone and a 35% reduction in the risk of disease progression or death.

Lynparza, which is a PARP inhibitor, meaning it aims to prevent the formation of enzyme poly ADP ribose polymerase that many cancers depend on, was given in combination with abiraterone in patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer.

Results of the trials showed Lynparza together with abiraterone achieved a 35% reduction in the risk of disease progression or death.

However the study also missed two secondary targets of greatly extending the time to second progression and overall survival, with median overall survival of was 22.7 months for the Lynparza-abiraterone combination and 20.9 months for abiraterone on its own, giving non-significant 9% reduction in the risk of death.

A previous study in similar prostate cancer patients demonstrated response rates of around 30% for Lynparza monotherapy, which was high as 90% in some patients with homologous recombination repair mutations and Lynparza is also being evaluated as a monotherapy for HRR mutant patients as a first line treatment, with other studies planned in a combination for metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer regardless of mutation status.