Boehringer Ingelheim drug shows efficacy in lung cancer trials

Boehringer Ingelheim has demonstrated the effectiveness of its compound afatinib among lung cancer patients with data from two new clinical studies.

The company has presented data from the phase III study LUX-Lung 1 and the phase II trial LUX-Lung 2 – both of which concern the investigational drug – at the 2010 European Society for Medical Oncology congress.

Findings from the phase III trial showed that the treatment is highly active among non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients, delivering a threefold increase in progression-free survival rates when compared to placebo.

Meanwhile, LUX-Lung 2 data also illustrated the drug's potential among NSCLC sufferers with EFGR mutations, with two further phase III studies currently underway.

Professor Klaus Dugi, senior vice-president for medicine at Boehringer Ingelheim, said: "We are convinced that afatinib could provide a benefit for patients with NSCLC and we remain fully committed to its ongoing development in lung cancer and in other solid cancer types."

Last month, the firm published data from the afatinib study LUX-Breast 1, which showed that the drug can also deliver benefits for breast cancer patients.