New preliminary results from a Phase II study presented at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) congress show that a new investigational compound, MetMAb, in combination with erlotinib nearly doubled the time that certain non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients lived without their disease getting worse compared to placebo plus erlotinib.1
MetMAb – a monovalent, one-armed antibody – plus erlotinib raised median PFS to 12.4 weeks in patients whose tumours were high MET (where high levels of the MET expression receptor are present) compared to 6.4 weeks with placebo plus erlotinib (HR=0.56, p=0.05).1 Interestingly, 54% of the patients enrolled in the study had high MET expressing tumours so the potential benefits of this combination treatment would be significant.1 An overall survival (OS) benefit was also observed in MET-high NSCLC patients on MetMAb plus erlotinib compared to MET-high patients on placebo plus erlotinib (HR 0.55, p=0.11).
“Lung cancer is a very difficult disease to treat and any new treatment options are therefore always welcome,” said Professor Ken O’Byrne, Consultant Oncologist, St James’s Hospital, Dublin.
“This study was conducted amongst a group of patients who had already been treated with standard chemotherapy regimens, so to see such improvements in PFS in a substantial proportion of the NSCLC patient population is quite remarkable.
We look forward to seeing the full results of this trial and ongoing research into MetMAb with erlotinib as this combination may well provide an important future treatment option for clinicians and patients alike.”
MET, which is the target for MetMAb, is a signaling receptor on the cell surface that appears to play a pivotal role in controlling the growth of some types of cancer.
If abnormally activated, MET has been associated with a worse prognosis in NSCLC and has also been implicated in resistance to EGFR inhibition in EGFR-mutated NSCLC.1 Consequently, targeting dual inhibition of MET/EGFR may result in positive treatment outcomes for NSCLC.
Source: Roche