FDA Approves New Immunotherapy Medicine for a Type of Metastatic Lung Cancer
October 18th, 2016
On October 18, the FDA granted approval to TECENTRIQ® (atezolizumab) for the treatment of people with metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who have disease progression during or following platinum-containing chemotherapy, and have progressed on an appropriate FDA-approved targeted therapy if their tumor has EGFR or ALK gene abnormalities.
News in brief
- TECENTRIQ is the first and only anti-PDL1 cancer immunotherapy for lung cancer approved by the FDA
- The approval is based on survival benefit of TECENTRIQ compared to docetaxel chemotherapy, regardless of PD-L1 status
- Approximately 224,000 people in the U.S. will be diagnosed with lung cancer in 2016, and non-small cell lung cancer accounts for 85 percent of all lung cancers
Supporting Information
“TECENTRIQ is a new option to help people with this type of previously treated metastatic lung cancer, regardless of PD-L1 expression, live longer than chemotherapy. TECENTRIQ is the first and only approved cancer immunotherapy designed to target the PD-L1 protein, which may play an important role in the way the medicine works.’’