An experimental immunotherapy given without chemotherapy kept patients with advanced squamous lung cancer alive a median of 18.5 months, compared with 10.0 months for those who received standard chemotherapy, according to updated trial data released Monday by BioNTech and its partner OncoC4.
The figures come from the first, non-pivotal stage of the PRESERVE-003 Phase 3 trial and were presented at the World Conference on Lung Cancer in Seoul. In their joint announcement, the companies said the drug, gotistobart, produced a hazard ratio of 0.56 against docetaxel, the chemotherapy that has anchored this stage of treatment for more than a decade. That figure corresponds to a 44% lower risk of death during the follow-up window, with a nominal p-value of 0.0295.
