Boehringer Ingelheim reports positive lung cancer data for Giotrif

Boehringer Ingelheim has announced positive clinical trial data showing the strong performance of its drug Giotrif in the treatment of a common form of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

Results of the pre-specified individual and exploratory combined analyses of two phase III trials have demonstrated that NSCLC patients with the most common epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutation – exon 19 deletions, also known as del19 – lived more than one year longer if treated with first-line Giotrif, compared to chemotherapy.

Del19 accounts for 50 percent of all EGFR mutations and is particularly prevalent among Asian patients. Boehringer Ingelheim's drug was able to prolong survival by 12.2 months versus chemotherapy in the LUX-Lung 3 trial and by 13 months in the LUX-Lung 6 trial.

This makes Giotrif – which utilises the active ingredient afatinib – the first treatment to demonstrate an overall survival benefit for patients with specific types of EGFR mutation-positive NSCLC.

Professor James Chih-Hsin Yang of the National Taiwan University Hospital said: "I think that this data supports afatinib as the treatment of choice for patients with the del19 mutation."

The therapy was recommended for the treatment of EGFR-TK mutation-positive forms of lung cancer by the UK's National Institute for Health and Care Excellence earlier this year.