Tecentriq approved by European Commission as a first-line monotherapy treatment for people with a type of metastatic NSCLC.- Roche

Roche has announced that the European Commission has approved Tecentriq (atezolizumab) as a first-line (initial) treatment for adults with metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) whose tumours have high PD-L1 expression, with no epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) or anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) genomic tumour aberrations. Tecentriq is now the first and only single-agent cancer immunotherapy with three dosing options, allowing administration every two, three or four weeks, giving physicians and patients greater flexibility on how they manage their treatment. This approval is based on data from the Phase III IMpower110 study, which showed that Tecentriq monotherapy improved overall survival (OS) by 7.1 months compared with chemotherapy (median OS=20.2 versus 13.1 months; hazard ratio [HR]=0.59, 95% CI: 0.40–0.89; p=0.0106) in people with high PD-L1 expression (TC3 or IC3-wild-type [WT]). Safety for Tecentriq was consistent with its known safety profile, with no new safety signals identified. Grade 3–4 treatment-related adverse events were reported in 12.9% of people receiving Tecentriq, compared with 44.1% of people receiving chemotherapy.