AstraZeneca PLC
Combining Immunotherapy And Chemotherapy Is Emerging As A New Standard In Cancer Treatment
On Monday, the Anglo-Swedish pharmaceutical company revealed its late-stage trial showed that the combination of Imfinzi and chemotherapy drugs carboplatin and paclitaxel, followed by Imfinzi by itself, reduced the risk of disease progression or death by 58% in adult suffering from primary, advanced or recurrent endometrial cancer that is mismatch repair deficient (dMMR), compared to chemotherapy alone. Endometrial cancer is the fourth most prevalent cancer among women in the U.S.
AstraZeneca is certainly not the first drug maker to test this combined approach. Moderna Inc
On June, Moderna and Merck revealed their combined treatment improved survival rates and showed durable efficacy in a midstage study in patients suffering from this deadly form of skin cancer. Nearly 75% of patients that received the experimental vaccine Moderna and Merck developed, along with Keytruda, were alive without any signs or symptoms of their cancer returning after two and a half years.
The overall survival rate of those patients who received the combined treatment that Moderna and Merck developed was 96% after the two-and-a-half-year period. Moreover, Merck and Moderna are expanding the scope of their trial by testing their combined treatment in patients diagnosed with a type of lung cancer.
BioNTech Faces A Setback On Its Oncology Journey
Like Pfizer
On Monday, the U.S. health regulator expressed concerns that at higher doses, the drug could expose patients to unreasonable and significant risk of illness or injuries. Upon the news, BioNTech stated that the partial hold affects the enrollment of new patients in the trial in the U.S.
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