AstraZeneca: Tagrisso combo shows response in lung cancer patients

London, UK – Preliminary results from AstraZeneca’s Phase II SAVANNAH trial indicate that Tagrisso (osimertinib) plus savolitinib demonstrated a 49% objective response rate (ORR) in patients with epidermal growth factor receptor-mutated (EGFRm) non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who had high levels of MET overexpression and/or amplification. These patients had experienced disease progression on Tagrisso treatment.

The highest response rate was observed in patients with high MET levels who had not received prior chemotherapy, at 52%. For patients whose tumors did not exhibit high levels of MET, the ORR was 9%. These findings were presented at the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC) 2022 World Conference on Lung Cancer in Vienna, Austria.

Savolitinib, marketed in China as Orpathys, is an oral MET tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) jointly developed with HUTCHMED. MET is a common resistance biomarker in patients with EGFR-mutated lung cancer who develop resistance to targeted therapy. Approximately 62% of patients screened for the SAVANNAH trial, all of whom had progressed on Tagrisso, had tumors with MET overexpression and/or amplification.

"The results from SAVANNAH suggest that savolitinib added to Tagrisso at the time of disease progression could potentially offer these biomarker-selected patients a less toxic, more effective treatment option compared to chemotherapy," said Cristian Massacesi, Chief Medical Officer at AstraZeneca. The global Phase III SAFFRON trial, evaluating this combination, is currently underway.