Roche' Tarceva nearly doubles progression-free survival vs chemotherapy

In a trial dubbed EURTAC, the first Phase III study to include Western lung cancer patients first-line treatment with erlotinib, Swiss drug major Roche’s (ROG: SIX) blockbuster Tarceva, nearly doubled progression-free survival compared with chemotherapy, according to research presented at the 14th World Conference on Lung Cancer in Amsterdam, Netherlands, hosted by the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC).

Erlotinib is a tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) that targets the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR). Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients with EGFR activating mutations tend to respond well to TKI therapy. Tarceva, which currently sold for advanced lung and pancreatic cancer, generated sales of more than $1.5 billion for Roche last year.

"Although a growing body of evidence has been emerging about this type of lung cancer, almost all of the studies have been conducted in Asian patients, a group that historically has had significantly different results to NSCLC therapy compared to Western populations," said principal investigator Radj Gervais, of the Centre Francois Baclesse in Caen, France. "EURTAC is the first Phase III study with first-line erlotinib in Western patients with this genetically distinct type of advanced NSCLC," he stated.