Roche's Atezolizumab Presents Positive Results In Bladder, Lung Cancer Tests

(RTTNews) - Genentech, a member of the Roche Group (ROG.SW, RO.SW), announced positive results from pivotal study of investigational immunotherapy atezolizumab in specific type of advanced bladder cancer at 2015 European Cancer Congress.

The phase II trial advanced or metastatic urothelial carcinoma showed atezolizumab immunotherapy drug shrank tumours in 27 percent of people who expressed medium and high levels of PD-L1, a protein that appears to help cancers evade the immune system.

Separately, the company also announced positive results from two Phase II studies that evaluated the investigational cancer immunotherapy atezolizumab in people with advanced non-small cell lung cancer.

In Phase II trials targeting advanced non-small cell lung cancer, the company said patients getting atezolizumab lived 7.7 months longer than people who received docetaxel chemotherapy.

A separate, single-arm Phase II study, BIRCH, met its primary endpoint and showed that atezolizumab shrank tumors in up to 27 percent of lung cancer sufferers whose disease had progressed on prior medicines and who expressed the highest PD-L1 levels.

"We plan to submit these results to global health authorities to bring this potential new option to people as soon as possible," said Sandra Hornung, Roche's chief medical officer, in a statement.

In February 2015, atezolizumab received Breakthrough Therapy Designation from U.S. FDA for treatment of people whose NSCLC expresses PD-L1 and whose disease worsened during or after standard treatments.