AstraZeneca have announced positive results from its Phase III MATTERHORN trial for its PD-L1 inhibitor IMFINZI (durvalumab). The trial evaluated patients with resectable, early-stage and locally advanced (Stages II, III, IVA) gastric and gastroesophageal junction (GEJ) cancers.
IMFINZI in combination with the standard of care chemotherapy saw a 29% decrease in progression, recurrence, and death when compared to patients that received chemotherapy alone. Furthermore, over two-thirds of patients in the IMFINZI cohort remained event free at two years post treatment.
Patients in this cohort were first treated with neoadjuvant IMFIMZI and chemo before receiving surgery. Then they received a course of adjuvant IMFIMZI with chemotherapy before finally being switched to IMFIMZI as a monotherapy.
Principal Investigator of MATTERHORN, and Chief Attending Physician of the Gastrointestinal Medical Oncology Service, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Yelena Y. Janjigian, commented on the trial.
She said: “Despite receiving curative-intent surgery and chemotherapy, patients with gastric and gastroesophageal cancers frequently develop recurrent disease.”
“Results from the MATTERHORN trial showed that more than two-thirds of patients treated with a durvalumab-based perioperative regimen had not experienced a recurrence or were progression-free after two years. This new treatment approach should become the new standard of care in this setting based on these results.”
The results were announced at the Plenary Session at the 2025 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) annual meeting and published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Image Credit: Calicut Medical College, CC BY-SA 4.0
