THOUSAND OAKS (dpa-AFX) - Amgen (AMGN) announced results from an exploratory biomarker analysis evaluating MET expression as a predictor of clinical response to rilotumumab (AMG 102).
The company stated that the analysis, conducted on a previously reported Phase 2 study of rilotumumab in patients with locally advanced or metastatic gastric or gastroesophageal cancer, showed that treatment with rilotumumab in combination with chemotherapy improved median overall survival (OS) in patients whose tumors exhibited high MET protein expression.
Rilotumumab is an investigational fully human monoclonal antibody designed to inhibit the hepatocyte growth factor/scatter factor (HGF/SF): MET pathway. In this exploratory analysis, the addition of rilotumumab to chemotherapy in patients with gastric tumors with high MET expression improved median OS from 5.7 months to 11.1 months (HR = 0.29, 95 percent CI, 0.11 - 0.76).
Conversely, in patients with gastric tumors with low MET expression, the addition of rilotumumab to chemotherapy was associated with a trend towards unfavorable OS (HR = 1.84, 95 percent CI, 0.78 - 4.34).
The company stated that these results have led Amgen to plan a Phase 3 study to confirm the efficacy of rilotumumab in advanced gastric and gastroesophageal cancer with high MET expression.
Amgen and Dako have entered into a collaboration to develop and evaluate the use of a companion diagnostic test in the development of rilotumumab.
Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX
© 2012 AFX News
