AstraZeneca and Daiichi Sankyo Company, Limited (Daiichi Sankyo)’s Enhertu (trastuzumab deruxtecan) has been approved in the US for the treatment of adult patients with locally advanced or metastatic HER2-positive gastric or gastroesophageal junction (GEJ) adenocarcinoma who have received a prior trastuzumab-based regimen.
In the US, gastric cancer is most frequently diagnosed in the advanced stage, with only approximately 5% of patients surviving beyond five years. Approximately one in five gastric cancers are HER2 positive.
Ronan Kelly, MD, MBA, Director of the Charles A. Sammons Cancer Center and the W.W. Caruth, Jr. Chair of Immunology at Baylor University Medical Center, Dallas, Texas, US, said: “Patients with metastatic HER2-positive gastric cancer with progression following 1st-line treatment have historically faced poor outcomes, including low response to treatment and rapid disease progression. This approval represents the first time a HER2-directed medicine has demonstrated a significant improvement in survival compared to chemotherapy following initial treatment in the metastatic setting, and it has the potential to become the new standard of care for this patient population.”
Dave Fredrickson, Executive Vice President, Oncology Business Unit, said: “Today’s approval of Enhertu represents the first HER2-directed medicine approved in a decade for patients with HER2-positive metastatic gastric cancer. The results from the DESTINY-Gastric01 trial highlight the potential to change clinical practice, showing a 41 per cent improvement in survival and a response rate more than three times higher with Enhertu compared to chemotherapy. We are thrilled to bring this important medicine to more patients and physicians in the US.”
Antoine Yver, Executive Vice President and Global Head, Oncology Research and Development, Daiichi Sankyo, said: “Enhertu is the first antibody drug conjugate to receive approval in the US for the treatment of patients with metastatic gastric cancer, and represents a major advance in managing this difficult-to-treat disease. This second indication in the US represents an important step forward in our ambitious plan to accelerate the development of Enhertu across a broad range of HER2-targetable cancers.”
This is the second indication approved for Enhertu in the US following the accelerated approval for adult patients with unresectable or metastatic HER2-positive breast cancer who have received two or more prior anti-HER2-based regimens in the metastatic setting based on the DESTINY-Breast01 trial.
