2024-01-24 14:56:51
The Ministry of Health approves the financing of a new oral therapy with an agnostic indication for several rare pediatric and adult cancers, as well as for another rare lung cancer that affects young non-smokers.
Research laboratory/EFE
The agnostic tumors for which this drug is indicated are when the therapy is not directed at a specific cancer, but rather at the tissue regardless of the type of tumor and its location.
This is entrectinib, a molecule developed by Roche that is now available for patients aged 12 years and older with locally advanced or metastatic solid tumors with fusion of the neurotrophic tyrosine kinase receptor (NTRK gene), as well as for adults with ROS1-positive advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who have not been previously treated with inhibitors of this protein.
NTRK gene fusions, although rare, have been identified in a wide variety of very common tumor types, such as breast, colorectal, gynecological, neuroendocrine, non-small cell lung, salivary gland, pancreas, sarcoma, and thyroid. explained in a press conference by experts in oncology and molecular therapy.
More in the pediatric population
This alteration is rare in adults, but somewhat more common in the pediatric population, especially in relapsed sarcomas and brain tumors, both of which have a very poor prognosis; For them, this drug has shown response rates of over 60% for very long periods of time, with a median of more than a year, highlighted Ana Fernández Teijeiro, president of the Spanish Society of Pediatric Hematology and Oncology (Sehop).
Another of its advantages is that it is administered orally in the form of tablets, which reduces hospitalizations and directly impacts the improvement of patients’ quality of life: “It is a treatment opportunity for people who until now did not have it.” “, the doctor assessed.
Entrectinib thus becomes the second drug available in Spain for agnostic tumors, which represents “a paradigm shift” in research and the spearhead of personalized medicine; This approach makes it possible to treat certain genetic factors of the disease, regardless of the type and organ affected, explained Mª Luz Amador, medical director of Roche Farma Spain.
Regarding the second indication for advanced ROS1+ NSCLC, the head of the Medical Oncology Service at the Ramón y Cajal University Hospital (Madrid), Pilar Garrido, has guaranteed that the new alternative is more effective than the one these patients already had, which do not correspond to the usual profile of lung cancer, but of “young people who have not smoked.”
After a month of treatment, he continued, there was already a response that is also “very long-lasting”, lasting more than two or three years.
Clinical trials
Dr. Elena Garralda, director of the Molecular Therapy Research Unit of the Institute of Oncology of the Hospital Valle de Hebron, in Barcelona, has highlighted that the trials for this drug have been expanded to 10 different types of cancer, a whole ” milestone”.
To which is added a response rate – when the tumor decreases more than or equal to 30% – of 62%; Within them, 16% have been complete responses.
(From left to right) doctors Pilar Garrido, head of the Medical Oncology Service and co-director of the IRYCIS Cancer Area of the Ramón y Cajal University Hospital in Madrid; Elena Garralda, director of the Molecular Therapy Research Unit of the Oncology Institute of the Vall d’Hebron Hospital in Barcelona; Mari Luz Amador, medical director of Roche Farma Spain; Federico Plaza, Director of Corporate Affairs at Roche Farma Spain and Dr. Ana Fernández-Teijeiro, President of the Spanish Society of Pediatric Hematology and Oncology (SEHOP). Photo provided
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