ESMO 2016: New data from Eisai’s oncology portfolio for halaven (eribulin), lenvima (lenvatinib) and kisplyx (lenvatinib)

Eisai highlights nine new data abstracts in hard to treat cancers for eribulin and lenvatinib at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress, Copenhagen, 7-11 October 2016.

Lenvatinib data in thyroid cancer, renal cell carcinoma and other solid tumours

An investigational phase II study for lenvatinib focuses on the treatment of KIF5B-RET–positive adenocarcinoma of the lung. Adenocarcinoma is a type of non-small cell lung carcinoma, one of the most common forms of lung cancer. RET fusions activate RET kinase and occur in 1-2% of patients.

Exploratory early phase data will review lenvatinib with anti PD-1 therapy including a phase Ib/II study in people with selected solid tumours.

Subanalyses from the pivotal SELECT study investigate responses in specific metastasis sites following treatment with lenvatinib for patients with radioiodine-refractory (RAI-R) differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC).  SELECT is a multicentre randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled phase III study to compare the progression-free survival (PFS) of patients with radioiodine-refractory differentiated thyroid cancer.

A pre-clinical study examines the VEGFR and FGFR signalling pathway participation in tumour growth and angiogenesis in human renal cell carcinoma xenografts treated with the combination of lenvatinib plus everolimus. A further pre-clinical study analyses immune response in syngeneic murine tumour models to understand the antitumour effect and mechanism of action of the combination of lenvatinib and PD-1 blockade treatment in a number of cancer models.

Epidemiological data in metastatic breast cancer

This study investigates the progressive decline in efficacy of active agents in locally advanced
or metastatic breast cancer with each successive therapy cycle. The study includes data from 443 patients in Spain with locally advanced or metastatic breast cancer.

Eribulin data in metastatic breast cancer

A study investigates the safety of eribulin in third-line chemotherapy in 59 patients with HER2-negative metastatic or locally advanced breast cancer.

Exploratory data from the investigational, phase II, multicenter, single arm trial (MERIBEL) will examine the efficacy and safety of eribulin as a first-line therapy for HER2- metastatic breast cancer.

Eribulin data in soft tissue sarcomas

Results will be presented from a pre-specified subgroup analysis in leiomyosarcomas of the phase III 309 study comparing eribulin to dacarbazine. Eribulin is not licensed in leiomyosarcomas in the European Union.

Video snippet

M. Ducreux says that the main focus of genomic research in upper GI cancers is in gastric carcinoma. He emphasizes that understanding of carcinogenesis is key in achieving progress in the treatment and discusses molecular subtypes of gastric cancer. He predicts that in a near future oncologists will be able to select patients and to propose immunotherapy probably in a sub-population of patients with MSI type gastric carcinoma.Video produced by the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO).

Table of Eisai’s products and where to find them

European Pharmaceutical Review hopes the event will be informative, interesting and impassioned – and of course we’ll keep you up to date with all the latest pharma news from the conference. Our advice? Attend as much as you can and download the ESMO events app to keep yourself in the loop.