LONDON (ShareCast) - (Sharecast News) - AstraZeneca said its Imfinzi drug when used with chemotherapy had shown "statistically significant and clinically meaningful improvement" in survival in resectable early-stage gastric and gastroesophageal cancers before surgery.
The findings come from results of the Matterhorn Phase 3 trial of 948 patients.

Gastric cancer is the fifth leading cause of cancer death globally, with nearly one million people diagnosed each year, Astra said in a statement.

"Despite receiving curative-intent chemotherapy and surgery, patients with gastric cancer commonly face disease recurrence and have a poor prognosis," said the trial's principal investigator Yelena Yanjigian, who is chief attending physician of the Gastrointestinal Medical Oncology Service at New York's Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.

"These exciting data show that a durvalumab-based perioperative regimen resulted in a clinically meaningful improvement in patient outcomes, including decreasing the risk of the cancer coming back."

In 2024, there were roughly 43,000 drug-treated patients in the US, European Union and Japan in early-stage and locally advanced gastric or GEJ cancer. Around 62,000 patients in these regions are expected to be newly diagnosed in this setting by 2030.

Reporting by Frank Prenesti for Sharecast.com

Email this article to a friend

or share it with one of these popular networks:

• DIGG
• FACEBOOK
• STUMBLEUPON
• MIXX
• YAHOO BUZZ
• DELICIOUS
• REDDIT
• NEWSVINE