Promising Combination Therapy for Patients with Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer
New results from a phase 1/1b clinical trial have shown promise in a subset of patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) whose disease progressed after standard-of-care therapies. The updated results of the CHRYSALIS-2 study, were presented at this year’s Annual Society for Oncology (ASCO) annual meeting held June 3-7 in Chicago, IL.
More people die of lung cancer in the United States than any other cancer, and NSCLC makes up about 85% of total lung cancer cases. Despite recent advances in therapies, the 5-year relative survival rate for lung cancer is just 26%.
“Treatment options are limited for patients with EGFR mutations who have progressed on osimertinib and platinum-based chemotherapy,” says Catherine A. Shu, MD, clinical director of the Thoracic Medical Oncology Service at Columbia University Irving Medical Center and a member of the Tumor Biology and Microenvironment research program at the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center.
Initial results from the trial presented at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) in September 2021 by Dr. Shu and colleagues demonstrated encouraging early activity of amivantamab, an epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR)-MET bispecific antibody, with the 3rd-generation tyrosine kinase inhibitor lazertinib in patients with EGFR-mutant NSCLC.
The updated analysis presented by Dr. Shu at this year’s ASCO meeting during the lung cancer oral session explored the combination in patients with EGFR-mutant NSCLC who failed standard of care therapy. Among the 162 enrolled patients, the overall response rate was 33% and the clinical benefit rate, or percentage of advanced cancer patients who achieve complete response, partial response, or at least six months of stable disease, was 57%. A partial response was observed in 52 patients, and a complete response in 2 patients. Among the 54 responders, 30 patients remain on treatment, and 27 have a response duration greater than six months. No new safety signals were identified as a part of this analysis.
“These results are really exciting for patients and physicians,” says Dr. Shu. “Among a population that has exhausted standard of care including heavily pretreated patients, the combination demonstrated clinically significant and durable antitumor activity, without biomarker selection. We hope to move these drugs forward to fill this unmet need.”
