Eli Lilly's ramucirumab for gastric cancer shows positive Phase III results
Eli Lilly announced that results from the Phase III REGARD trial of ramucirumab as a single agent in patients with advanced gastric cancer who have had disease progression after initial chemotherapy were published today in The Lancet. REGARD is the first Phase III study with either a single-agent biologic or an anti-angiogenic therapy to show improved overall survival and progression-free survival in advanced gastric cancer patients. Patients treated with single-agent ramucirumab achieved a median overall survival of 5.2 months compared to 3.8 months for patients on the placebo arm, representing a 37% increase. The overall survival hazard ratio was 0.776, which corresponds to a 22% reduction in risk of death.