Hengrui Releases New Research Results of Carelibizumab Esophageal Cancer or Will Have Immunotherapy

Medical Network July 10, esophageal cancer is a high-risk tumor in China, especially for advanced patients with first-line treatment failure, lack of effective treatment. Recently, a notice from Hengrui Medicine will bring new treatment hopes to patients with esophageal cancer. On July 8, Jiangsu Hengrui Pharmaceutical announced that it has reached the main research endpoint in the clinical study of ESCORT in the treatment of advanced esophageal squamous cell carcinoma with its single-agent second-line treatment. Studies have shown that patients with advanced or metastatic esophageal squamous cell carcinoma who have failed previous first-line chemotherapy, compared with the single-agent treatment with carelitozumab, can significantly prolong the survival of patients.

The ESCORT study was a randomized, open-label, chemotherapeutic, multicenter, phase III clinical trial that began enrolling patients in May 2017. As of May 2019, a total of 448 patients were randomized to receive study medication, of which 228 Patients received careliuzumab and 220 patients received chemotherapy. The detailed results of the above studies will be released simultaneously in September 2019 at the China Society of Clinical Oncology (CSCO) in Xiamen, Fujian Province, and the European Conference of Cancer Society (ESMO) in Barcelona, ​​Spain.

Esophageal cancer is a high-risk tumor in China, and the pathological type is different from that in Europe and the United States. There is currently no effective treatment for advanced patients with first-line treatment failure. The success of the ESCORT study is expected to address the urgent need for clinical treatment. Zou Jianjun, deputy general manager and chief medical officer of Jiangsu Hengrui Medicine , pointed out that the success of ESCORT research has solved the urgent need for clinical treatment. “We will also strengthen communication and close cooperation with regulators to bring this potentially effective treatment to patients as soon as possible,” she said.

Xu Jianming, the principal investigator of the study and the Fifth Medical Center of the General Hospital of the Chinese People's Liberation Army, said that in the past decades, advanced esophageal squamous cell carcinoma was only effective in chemotherapy, and the effect of second-line chemotherapy was very limited, far from meeting the expectations of doctors and patients. The ESCORT study not only surpasses the effects of existing second-line chemotherapy, but also provides a direction for future clinical treatment ideas for esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.

Another major investigator of the study, Professor Huang Jing of the Cancer Hospital of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, believes that carelizumab in the second-stage clinical study of advanced esophageal cancer proves that it can effectively improve compared with traditional chemotherapy. The patient's overall survival time, delaying the progression of the disease , brings new treatment opportunities and new hopes for patients with advanced esophageal cancer in China, and will enable more patients with esophageal cancer to be treated from carelitozumab in the future. Benefit from.

It is understood that Karelizumab for injection is a self-developed humanized anti-PD-1 monoclonal antibody developed by Hengrui. It is an innovative immunotherapeutic drug with independent intellectual property rights in China. In May of this year, Karelizumab was approved for the indication of relapsed and refractory classic Hodgkin's lymphoma. At present, including lymphoma and esophageal cancer, there are 32 clinical trials of single-agent or combination chemotherapy that have been carried out by carelibizumab, and a total of nearly 3,000 subjects have been enrolled, with a focus on high-risk and refractory Chinese. Tumor species, such as liver cancer, stomach cancer, lung cancer, esophageal cancer, nasopharyngeal cancer, etc., are intended to benefit Chinese cancer patients. Phase III clinical trials of carrelixizumab combined with apatinib in the treatment of advanced hepatocellular carcinoma have been carried out simultaneously in many regions at home and abroad, and it is expected to promote national innovative drugs to the international market in the future.