Roche’s Tecentriq gains new US lung cancer indication

Roche’s Tecentriq (atezolizumab) cancer immunotherapy has gained a new indication in the US after the FDA granted it a license in a difficult to treat the form of lung cancer in combination with chemotherapy. The regulator granted the new indication as a treatment for adults with extensive-stage small cell lung cancer (ES-SCLC) in combination with carboplatin and etoposide in previously untreated patients. Approval is based on results from the phase 3 Impower133 study, showing Tecentriq in combination with chemotherapy helped people live significantly longer compared with chemotherapy. Overall survival in a trial arm treated with the Tecentriq combination was 12.3 months, compared with 10.3 months in patients treated with chemotherapy alone. Roche’s drug also significantly reduced the risk of disease worsening or death – progression-free survival was 5.2 months in the Tecentriq group, compared with 4.3 months in the chemotherapy group.