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Developers experimenting with a novel drug class called anti-TIGIT immunotherapies rose on Friday in reaction to promising early-stage trial results for Roche’s (OTCQX:RHHBY) experimental liver cancer drug tiragolumab.
An abstract released ahead of the next month’s American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting indicated that tiragolumab, an anti-TIGIT therapy, along with the standard of care, benefitted more patients with liver cancer, hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) as a first-line option.
The Phase 1b/2 trial MORPHEUS included patients with previously untreated unresectable, locally advanced, or metastatic HCC.
Some of the patients received only standard of care comprising Roche’s (OTCQX:RHHBY) PD-L1 inhibitor, Tecentriq (atezolizumab) and its anti–VEGF therapy Avastin (bevacizumab), while others received tiragolumab as an additional therapy.
According to a Nov. 28 data cut from 58 patients, those who received the triple regimen showed a higher confirmed overall response and median progression-free survival, some of the key measures used by investigators in assessing a cancer drug.
The treatment combo comprising Tiragolumab, atezolizumab, and bevacizumab was also linked to a lower rate of grade 3/4 treatment-related adverse events and a comparable rate of treatment discontinuations.
“These data suggest that tira + atezo + bev may be a promising novel first-line treatment option for patients with uHCC, and support further study in this setting,” the researchers wrote.
Other developers of anti-TIGIT therapies, including Arcus Biosciences (NYSE:RCUS), iTeos Therapeutics (NASDAQ:ITOS), and Compugen (NASDAQ:CGEN), are trading higher in reaction to the data readout.
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