Positive early results from a drug tested on people with advanced bladder cancer continued in a larger data set reviewed recently, the drug's maker, AstraZeneca, has reported.
“The durable responses observed in this larger data set from Study 1108 confirm the promising efficacy we’ve already seen for durvalumab in patients with advanced bladder cancer," David Berman, senior vice president and Head of Oncology Innovative Medicines at MedImmune, said.
AstraZeneca and its global biologics research and development arm, MedImmune, announced the updated efficacy and safety data for durvalumab in patients with locally advanced or metastatic urothelial cancer (UC) during the 2017 ASCO Genitourinary Cancers Symposium.
The combination of durvalumab and tremelimumab is also being studied in non-small cell lung cancer, head and neck squamous cell carcinoma, gastric cancer, pancreatic cancer, hepatocellular carcinoma and haematological malignancies.
“The clinical efficacy of durvalumab in patients with advanced UC is particularly encouraging," said Prof. Thomas Powles, director of the Barts Cancer Centre in London. "For the past three decades we’ve seen limited progress in therapy for bladder cancer patients, and there remains significant unmet need for new treatment options.”
