Novocure touts a new pancreatic combo

Novocure’s tumour treating fields (TTFields) technology was recently FDA approved alongside Abraxane and gemcitabine in first-line pancreatic cancer, and now the company is looking to add Tecentriq to the mix. Novocure said on Thursday that the phase 2 Panova-4 trial of the quadruplet, in metastatic disease, had met its primary endpoint, showing a “statistically significant improvement in disease control rate” versus Abraxane and gemcitabine alone. However, Panova-4 was a single-arm study, with the “control” data coming from a historic trial, Mpact. Still, TTFields plus Tecentriq, Abraxane and gemcitabine did appear to outperform the Mpact regimen on DCR, as well as on secondary measures like overall response rate and overall survival. Meanwhile, TTFields (as Optune Pax) was FDA approved in February in locally advanced pancreatic cancer, an earlier setting, based on the Panova-3 study. Here, results with TTFields plus Abraxane and gemcitabine looked much more impressive; even the control arm produced a median OS of 9.3 months. While Panova-3 met its primary endpoint of overall survival, however, it failed to show a benefit versus Abraxane and gemcitabine alone on ORR and PFS.

Cross-trial comparison in first-line pancreatic cancer

Source: OncologyPipeline & company releases.