HGS completes enrollment in Ph II mapatumumab trial

US drug major Human Genome Sciences has completed the enrollment and initial dosing of patients in a randomized Phase II trial of HGS-ETR1 (mapatumumab) in combination with the chemotherapy agents paclitaxel and carboplatin as first-line therapy in advanced non-small cell lung cancer.

The NSCLC trial is a randomized, multi-center, open-label Phase II study to evaluate the efficacy and safety of HGS-ETR1 in combination with carboplatin and paclitaxel as first-line therapy in the treatment of advanced non-small cell lung cancer. 111 patients have been randomly assigned to one of three treatment groups and treated with either the two-agent combination of carboplatin and paclitaxel or the three-agent combination of carboplatin, paclitaxel, and HGS-ETR1 at either 10mg/kg or 30mg/kg.

"There is an urgent medical need for effective treatment options for non-small cell lung cancer because current treatment strategies have only a minimal impact on survival," said Joachim von Pawel, principal study investigator.