Posted by Michael Wonder on 08 May 2020
FDA approves first therapy for patients with lung and thyroid cancers with a certain genetic mutation or fusion
8 May 2020 - Today, the U.S. FDA approved Retevmo (selpercatinib) capsules to treat three types of tumours – non-small cell lung cancer, medullary thyroid cancer and other types of thyroid cancers – in patients whose tumors have an alteration (mutation or fusion) in a specific gene (RET or “rearranged during transfection”).
Retevmo is the first therapy approved specifically for cancer patients with the RET gene alterations.
The FDA approved Retevmo on the results of a clinical trial involving patients with each of the three types of tumors. During the clinical trial, patients received 160 mg Retevmo orally twice daily until disease progression or unacceptable toxicity. The major efficacy outcome measures were overall response rate, which reflects the percentage of patients that had a certain amount of tumour shrinkage, and duration of response.
