Bayer ’ s Drug Failed to Improve Mesothelioma Survival

Drug manufacturers announced disappointing ends recently to two different clinical trials involving pleural mesothelioma, dampening earlier enthusiasm over the promise of immunotherapy. Anetumab ravtansine, manufactured by Bayer, and tremelimumab, from drugmaker AstraZeneca, failed an effectiveness test as a stand-alone, second-line treatment for mesothelioma, according to both manufacturers. “Malignant pleural mesothelioma is a very difficult-to-treat tumor, and we had hoped for a better outcome for patients,” said Robert LaCaze, an executive vice president at Bayer. Although trial officials have not released their results, LaCaze confirmed the primary endpoint of progression-free survival was not met. Researchers are studying anetumab ravtansine (BAY 949343) with six different types of cancer, while still showing effectiveness in combination with other drugs for treating mesothelioma. Tremelimumab Study Results Tremelimumab is an immunotherapy agent created with human antibodies and has the ability to unmask the cancer cells, allowing a patient’s own immune system to attack. While it has shown effectiveness with non-small cell lung cancer, it did not improve survival in a large, multicenter mesothelioma trial. Although the trial was suddenly stopped in 2016, The Lancet Oncology in July published results of the phase II trial, which involved 105 centers across 19 countries. It included 20 cancer centers within the U.S. The trial originally launched in 2013, and 571 pa...
Source: Asbestos and Mesothelioma News - Category: Environmental Health Authors: Tags: anetumab ravtansine astrazeneca cancer drug bayer cancer drug bayer mesothelioma drug mesothelioma clinical trials tremelimumab Source Type: news