Zykadia: Lung Cancer Treatment Found; One Of Novartis Oncology Pipeline Products Shows Promising Results

Zykadia is one of the leading Novartis Oncology pipeline products, which is under phase 3 clinical trial. It has shown remarkable positive results in anaplastic lymphoma kinase-positive nonsmall cell lung cancer treatment. It was found that Zykadia is twice as effective as other presently available chemotherapeutic lung cancer treatment drugs in halting the progression of the disease.

Zykadia: Most Effective in Lung Cancer Treatment

The studies made by Novartis showed that Zykadia showed progression-free survival of lung cancer patients for 16.6 months as opposed to the recorded 8.1 month in popular lung cancer treatments, reported Investopedia.

Studies reveal that Zykadia inhibits anaplastic lymphoma kinase gene, which is known to combine with other oncogenic genes and causes lung cancer growth. It was also found that Zykadia is a safe Novartis Oncology pipeline product that has already been approved in the U.S. as second line of lung cancer treatment, which can be administered if the initial chemotherapy Pfizer Inc.'s Xalkori fails to respond.

Zykadia has also gained the conditional approval of EU in lieu of its positive response in phase 3 trials. The results were discussed at the ESMO 2016 Congress, reported LungCancerGo. Giorgio Scagliotti, lead study author, Oncology, Novartis, said that Zykadia "opens up a new treatment paradigm after crizotinib failure."

He also added that after the failure of Xalkori (crizotinib) in preventing progression of lung cancer, Zykadia (ceritinib) should be preferred as the first line of lung cancer treatment. Scagliotti stressed that it would be logical now to give a sequence of active drugs, starting with Zykadia in first line.

New results released by Novartis also suggest that Zykadia could also be effective in lung cancer treatment of the patients whose disease has already progressed after administration of Xalkori.

As of now, there is a competition among Novartis' Zykadia, Roche Holding AG's Alecensa and Ariad Pharmaceuticals Inc.'s Brigatinib to be approved as the first line lung cancer treatment method. Who wins the battle will be known in the near future.