Daiichi Sankyo Company, Limited (hereafter, Daiichi Sankyo) announced that the first patient has been dosed in a phase 2 study evaluating patritumab deruxtecan (U3-1402), a HER3 directed DXd antibody drug conjugate (ADC), in patients with advanced or metastatic colorectal cancer who are resistant, refractory, or intolerant to at least two prior lines of systemic therapy.
Standard treatment options for patients with advanced or metastatic colorectal cancer include surgery when possible, chemotherapy with or without targeted therapy, and radiation therapy. However, many patients with advanced colorectal cancer will progress through multiple lines of therapy, and prognosis remains poor after failure of these therapies. It is estimated that up to 83 percent of patients with colorectal cancer overexpress the HER3 protein, which can be associated with an increased incidence of metastases, reduced survival and resistance to standard cancer treatment.
“The prognosis of patients with advanced or metastatic colorectal cancer remains poor, and there is a need to develop new treatment strategies, including targeting HER3,” said Gilles Gallant, BPharm, PhD, FOPQ, Senior Vice President, Global Head, Oncology Development, Oncology R&D, Daiichi Sankyo. “In this study, we are exploring whether the targeted delivery of cytotoxic chemotherapy with patritumab deruxtecan to cancer cells with varying levels of HER3 expression may be a potential treatment option for previously treated advanced or metastatic colorectal cancer.”