Amgen outlines Vectibix trial results

Amgen, the human therapeutics company, has found that metastatic colorectal cancer patients who have not benefited from other chemotherapeutic regimens can benefit from Vectibix.

Patients with non-mutated KRAS tumours benefited from an increased rate of progression-free survival when Vectibix is used, Amgen claims.

Results were generated using a biomarker analysis system that compared the Vectibix monotherapy plus best supportive care against best supportive care alone.

The data showed that Vectibix had a number of benefits over supportive care alone.

“These data have substantially advanced our thinking about individualised treatment of colorectal cancers. We are hopeful that the use of biomarkers like KRAS will enable improved treatment outcomes for colorectal cancer patients,” said Dr Roger M Perlmutter, the executive vice-president of research and development at Amgen.

Amgen noted that survival rates were higher among patients with non-mutated cancers rather than mutated cells.

The firm has been working in the biotechnology field for more than 25 years and works to develop novel products through work with recombinant DNA and molecular biology.