Highlights from European Cancer Congress on Kadcyla, Yervoy, Erbitux and Somatuline

There was a lot of new oncology data presented at the European Cancer Congress (ECCO) taking place in Amsterdam, Netherlands, over the weekend, including positive late-stage or pooled data from pharmaceutical companies such as Roche (ROG: SIX), Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE: BMY), Merck KGaA (MRK: DE) and Ipsen (Euronext: IPN).

First up, Swiss drug major Roche and its Genentech subsidiary announced that Kadcyla (trastuzumab emtansine) significantly extended the time people with advanced HER2-positive breast cancer (metastatic and unresectable locally advanced/recurrent) lived without their disease worsening (progression-free survival [PFS], a co-primary endpoint) compared to people who received a treatment of their physician’s choice in an open-label phase III study called TH3RESA.

The data also showed the risk of disease worsening or death was reduced by 47% for people who received Kadcyla (HR=0.528, P<0.0001). Data for overall survival, the other co-primary endpoint, are not yet mature. No new safety signals were observed with Kadcyla.