Posted by Michael Wonder on 14 Jun 2018
Alecensaro (alectinib) approved by Health Canada for first-line treatment of ALK-positive lung cancer
13 June 2018 - Targeted oral treatment shown to reduce risk of death or disease progression by more than half compared to standard of care, while also reducing the risk of tumours spreading to and growing in the central nervous system.
Roche Canada announced today that Health Canada has approved Alecensaro as a monotherapy for the first-line treatment of patients with anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK)-positive locally advanced (not amenable to curative therapy) or metastatic non-small cell lung cancer.
The approval is based on results from the Phase III ALEX study showing Alecensaro reduced the risk of disease progression or death by more than half (53%) versus crizotinib, the current standard of care. Study data also showed that, compared to crizotinib, Alecensaro reduced the risk of tumours spreading to, or growing in, the brain or CNS by 84%.
