AstraZeneca says lung cancer drug trial shows no significant improvement in overall survival

Detailed results from one of AstraZeneca’s key lung cancer trials released recently showed that its experimental precision drug did not significantly improve overall survival results for patients in the trial.

The overall survival, or OS rates, in the TROPION-Lung01 trial “did not reach statistical significance”, the company said in a presentation at the World Conference on Lung Cancer in San Diego.

The late-stage trial has been closely watched by investors and by analysts who forecast that the drug, known as Dato-DXd, could potentially be another best-selling medicine for the company.

The trial compared the two treatments — AstraZeneca’s drug and chemotherapy — of patients whose non-small cell lung cancer had returned after one or two prior treatment attempts.

Previous data releases related to the trial have knocked shares. In July 2023, the drugmaker’s shares fell by as much as 8 per cent  after the company released interim data on progression-free survival, or PFS. And they fell again later in the year after the company released more PFS data related to the trial.

Overall survival is another important efficacy criterion for cancer drugs.

The drug, known as Dato-DXd, belongs to a promising class known as antibody drug conjugates (ADC), which consist of tumour-seeking monoclonal antibodies that are combined with a cell-killing chemotherapy payload. It has been developed jointly with Japan’s Daiichi Sankyo .