Once-Promising Drug Ofev Fails in Mesothelioma Clinical Trial

The search for a cure of mesothelioma hit another roadblock recently when a once-promising immunotherapy drug, combined with standard chemotherapy, failed to slow disease progression in a phase III study. The multicenter study covering 27 countries involved Ofev (nintedanib), a small-molecule enzyme inhibitor drug that had shown considerable potential in earlier studies. Lancet Respiratory Medicine published the trial results, signaling another setback for the highly anticipated use of certain immunotherapy drugs to treat mesothelioma. “Making significant improvements in systemic therapy for malignant pleural mesothelioma has proven to be quite challenging,” lead researcher Dr. Giorgio Scagliotti, University of Turin, San Luigi Hospital in Italy, wrote. “Despite promising data from the phase II part of the study, the primary endpoint [progression-free survival] was not met in the phase III part.” Ofev Doesn’t Help with Chemotherapy The recent trial included 458 patients randomly assigned to pemetrexed and cisplatin chemotherapy, plus either Ofev or a placebo. Unfortunately, Ofev provided no advantage. Median progression-free survival was 6.8 months for patients assigned Ofev, compared with seven months for those with the placebo. Median overall survival was 14.4 months in the Ofev group and 16.1 months in the placebo group. A secondary measure of health-related quality of life and average symptom burden index scores only slightly favored the Ofev group. Serious side...
Source: Asbestos and Mesothelioma News - Category: Environmental Health Authors: Source Type: news