Rova-T set to revolutionize small cell lung cancer space, says analyst

Recent data from the 2016 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting have shown that rovalpituzumab tesirine (Rova-T), AbbVie’s (NYSE: ABBV) antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) to treat recurrent/refractory small cell lung cancer (SCLC), represents a promising new approach, as it is the first biomarker-directed therapy for treating the disease, an aggressive form of lung cancer that accounts for around 15% of all lung cancers.

According to Volkan Gunduz, an analyst with research and consulting firm GlobalData, “By attaching a powerful chemotherapy that is too potent to administer on its own to an antibody that detects delta-like protein 3 (DLL3), Rova-T delivers the payload directly to cancer cells. Importantly, DLL3 is not present in healthy tissue but is expressed in more than 80% of SCLC patient tumors, making it a highly specific biomarker for SCLC.”

The most promising aspect of data from the Phase I/II trial is the discovery of a biomarker that could predict the efficacy of a targeted therapy for treating SCLC. In 74 patients enrolled in this trial, 88% had DLL3 expression on ≥1% of tumor cells, meaning that majority of the patients with SCLC may benefit from this therapy.