Roche has said that its new immune-boosting cancer drug atezolizumab was shown to shrink tumors in two different studies involving lung cancer patients.
The Swiss drug maker made the announcement at the European Cancer Congress in Vienna on Sunday in the hopes that the results of the Birch and Poplar studies could quickly win it regulatory approval.
In the BIRCH study, which involved participants with advanced or metastatic non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC), the drug shrank tumors in 27 percent of the patients who had high levels of the protein PD-L1, which helps cancer elude the immune system.
The Poplar study, on the other hand, showed that the participants who expressed medium and high levels of PD-L1 and whose lung cancers relapsed after they were previously treated survived 7.7 months longer when they received the experimental drug when compared with chemotherapy.
No benefit was observed though in patients without the PD-L1 protein.
"Results from both of our studies in non-small cell lung cancer showed that measuring PD-L1 may help identify people most likely to respond to atezolizumab, and the majority of responses continued when these data were assessed," Roche's chief medical officer Sandra Horning said in a statement. "Durable responses are meaningful for people whose cancer has progressed on other medicines, and we plan to submit these results to global health authorities to bring this potential new option to people as soon as possible".
The drug maker hopes that the drug, which achieved "breakthrough therapy designation" from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in February, will be available in the market late next year.
Horning said that the company plans to submit the results of the Phase II trials to global health authorities, so atezolizumab could soon become available as a new treatment option for patients.
Adverse events linked with the treatment include itching, fatigue, joint pain and rash.
The drug is also being developed as treatment for bladder cancer. Roche said that in a third study involving bladder cancer patients, the experimental drug shrank the tumors in 15 of the 311 patients. Those with the highest level of PD-L1 have shown the most benefit with 27 percent of them experiencing tumor shrinkage.
Roche, the biggest maker of oncology drugs, banks on the new experimental treatment to keep pace with its rivals, which include Bristol-Myers Squibb and Merck And Co., in the field of cancer immunotherapy development.
