AstraZeneca's Tagrisso cuts lung cancer progression by 70%

AstraZeneca said on Tuesday that data from a Phase III trial of Tagrisso has shown the medicine is superior to standard chemotherapy for the treatment of lung cancer.

The pharmaceuticals giant said the medicine was shown to reduce the risk of lung cancer progression by 70% compared to chemotherapy and improve progression-free survival by almost six months.

Sean Bohen, executive vice president of Global Medicines Development and chief medical officer at AstraZeneca, said: "The confirmatory Phase III data suggest the potential for Tagrisso to replace chemotherapy as the standard of care for patients who have progressed following epidermal growth factor receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitor treatment.

“As lung cancer is the most common type of cancer to spread to the brain, it is also encouraging to see the activity of Tagrisso in patients with central nervous system metastases whose prognosis is often particularly poor."

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