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AstraZeneca has unveiled positive trial results for a breast cancer drug that can stop mutating tumours before they start to grow, hoping it will be one of a portfolio of medicines that will propel it to become the world leader in oncology.
The late stage trial of Camizestrant for “advanced” breast cancer, which was presented at the annual Asco cancer conference, cut the risk of a tumour progressing, or a patient dying, by 56 per cent in aggregate. AstraZeneca estimates it could be worth up to $5bn of sales in its peak year.
David Frederickson, executive vice-president of oncology at AstraZeneca, said that Camizestrant and two other drugs presented at the conference could replace existing treatments for up to 75,000 patients between them.
AstraZeneca’s ambition was to become the “number one cancer company globally” by sales — it is currently number three in some regions — and to “eliminate cancer as a cause of death” Frederickson said. The pharma group already has nine cancer medicines approved for 37 different types and stages of cancer.
The Camizestrant study used an innovative blood test, often called a liquid biopsy, to detect tumour DNA and identify patients at high risk of mutated tumour before it could be picked up on a scan. The test enabled patients to be treated with the new drug at an earlier stage.
“We’re moving away from a one-size-fits-all era into a place where we can outsmart cancer’s resistant mechanisms before they actually take hold,” Frederickson said.
The trial treated a subset of breast cancer patients with particular receptors on their tumours. Camizestrant prevents oestrogen from attaching to cancer cells and destroys the cells’ receptors, making it harder for it to resist treatment.
The results showed that disease progression for patients taking the new drug in combination with an existing treatment was delayed by an average of 16 months, compared with 9.2 months in the group given just the existing treatment.
The trial also found that treatment with the new drug led to better quality of life for patients for significantly longer than the current standard. It has not yet published full data on how long the drug helps patients survive compared with existing treatments.
The study was led by researchers at the Institute of Cancer Research in London, the Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust in London and the Institut Curie in Paris.
Professor Kristian Helin, chief executive of the Institute of Cancer Research, said the results were “more than a clinical milestone — they represent a transformational shift in how we approach precision medicine”.
