Boehringer Ingelhiem’s oncology business continues to build up steam with new study data that demonstrates its investigational drug nintedanib is able to extend survival in a specific group of lung cancer patients.
Data from the LUME-Lung 1 study was presented at the European Cancer Congress in Amsterdam and showed that in patients who have advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with adenocarcinoma – cancer developed from the cells that produce mucus in the lining of the airways – nintedanib can help extend overall survival beyond one year after prior first-line chemotherapy.
LUME-Lung 1 involved 1,314 patients NSCLC patients randomised to receive nintedanib and the chemotherapy docetaxel or placebo plus docetaxel.
Results demonstrated that the patients in the placebo arm had an increase in median overall survival of 10.3 months after patients failed first-line chemotherapy compared to the nintedanib arm, which saw an increase of 12.6 months.
In addition, the study showed that in adenocarcinoma patients who failed first-line chemotherapy within nine months, nintedanib had an even superior overall survival benefit compared to placebo.
The results build on data presented by Boehringer at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) meeting in Chicago in June this year, which showed that nintedanib was unable to improve overall survival for the entire NSCLC population, but showed promise in those patients with adenocarcinoma.
The cancer is the most common of NSCLC – accounting for around 40 per cent of cases. Next is squamous cell carcinomas, which make up 25 to 30 per cent, while other types, including large cell carcinoma, make up the rest.
Boehringer is currently preparing regulatory submissions around the globe for nintedanib, putting it on course to be the company’s second approved oncology drug.
The first was afatanib, a personalised treatment intended for patients with the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) gene mutation. It was approved as a treatment for NSCLC in Europe earlier this month under the name Giotrif and in the US in July under the name Gilotrif.