New therapy bests chemo at improving survival in endometrial cancer
A large clinical trial testing Merck’s therapy candidate sacituzumab tirumotecan (sac-TMT, Synonyms: SKB264, SKB 264, MK-2870, MK2870) in people with hard-to-treat endometrial cancer has achieved its main goal, with sac-TMT outperforming standard chemotherapy in delaying disease progression and prolonging survival.
That’s according to new data from the global Phase 3 TroFuse-005 study (NCT06132958), which is testing the experimental therapy versus chemo in about 700 people with advanced endometrial cancer.Merck announced in a company press release that the trial “met its primary endpoints of overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) in certain patients with advanced or recurrent endometrial cancer,” noting “statistically significant improvement in both OS and PFS compared to chemotherapy.”Progression-free survival is the time patients remain alive without the disease advancing.
“These results show sac-TMT may be able to address a critical unmet need for certain patients with advanced endometrial cancer, one of the only cancers increasing in both incidence and mortality worldwide,” said Domenica Lorusso, MD, PhD, global lead investigator of the clinical trial at Humanitas University and Humanitas San Pio X in Italy.
Addressing Endometrial Cancer Challenges
Endometrial cancer is a form of gynecological cancer marked by the abnormal growth of cells that line the uterus.Currently available treatments include platinum-based chemotherapy, which targets rapidly dividing cells, and anti-PD-1/L1 immunotherapy, which directs immune cells to attack the tumor.When these standard therapies fail to control the cancer, however, options are limited.
This trial, slated for completion in 2028, enrolled cancer patients who had previously received platinum-based chemotherapy and anti-PD-1/anti-PD-L1 immunotherapy, either together or separately.Participants were randomly assigned to treatment with either sac-TMT or their doctor’s choice of standard chemotherapies.
