AstraZeneca's thyroid cancer drug candidate vandetanib meets Ph III goals, ASCO meeting told; Pfizer/crizotinib trial correction

Presenting at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) annual meeting in Chicago, Anglo-Swedish drug major AstraZeneca said that its investigational cancer compound vandetanib extends the time before a type of rare thyroid cancer progresses.

Results from ZETA, a Phase III study in patients with advanced medullary thyroid cancer (MTC), showed that treatment with vandetanib significantly extended Progression Free Survival (PFS), the primary endpoint of the study, by demonstrating a 54% reduction in the rate of progression compared to placebo (HR=0.46, p=0.0001).

ZETA was a Phase III, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, multicenter study, evaluating oral once-daily vandetanib 300mg in 331 patients with unresectable, locally-advanced or metastatic hereditary or sporadic medullary thyroid cancer and the presence of a measurable tumor. This was the first Phase III trial with definitive results, carried out for patients with advanced MTC.