Roche says Alecensa helps keep ALK-positive lung cancer at bay after surgery as it looks to expand label

Roche’s alec­tinib, mar­ket­ed as Ale­cen­sa, helped cer­tain lung can­cer pa­tients stay dis­ease-free for longer fol­low­ing surgery in a Phase III study, the big phar­ma an­nounced Fri­day.

Roche’s sub­sidiary Genen­tech test­ed the drug in a Phase III open-la­bel study with 257 pa­tients with ALK-pos­i­tive non-small cell lung can­cer (NSCLC) who had their stage IB to II­IA tu­mors re­moved. Com­pared to those in the con­trol arm who re­ceived chemother­a­py fol­low­ing surgery, those who re­ceived alec­tinib had a re­duced risk of their can­cer re­turn­ing.

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