Imfinzi regimen shows early promise in hard-to-treat cancer

AstraZeneca (LSE: AZN) has reported positive findings from its Phase III MATTERHORN trial, spotlighting the potential of its immunotherapy Imfinzi (durvalumab) to significantly delay disease progression in patients with early-stage and locally advanced gastric and gastroesophageal junction (GEJ) cancers.

Presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting in Chicago and published in The New England Journal of Medicine, the interim data revealed that combining Imfinzi with standard FLOT chemotherapy before and after surgery reduced the risk of disease progression, recurrence or death by 29% compared to chemotherapy alone.

At the two-year mark, the proportion of patients remaining event-free rose to 67.4% with the Imfinzi-based regimen, compared to 58.5% in the control group.