Dr Sunil Verma on Background, Results of TOPAZ-1 Study

Sunil Verma, MD, senior vice president and global head of oncology, medical at AstraZeneca, explains the background and results of the TOPAZ-1 study, which evaluated the use of immunotherapy to improve overall survival and progression-free survival of biliary tract cancer. Results were presented at the recent American Society of Clinical Oncology Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium (ASCO GI).

Transcript:

Can you discuss the purpose and results of the TOPAZ-1 study?

Let me start off by discussing biliary tract cancer. As you mentioned, hepatocellular cancer is also associated with delayed diagnosis and, similarly, with biliary tract cancer. These have very nonspecific symptoms where patients have some right upper abdominal pain, they may have some nausea, they may have some referred pain, and things that most people would suggest are nonspecific symptoms. Many of these patients are associated with very delayed diagnosis and, in biliary tract cancer, we have really not seen any major significant advances in this field for more than a decade, and the current main chemotherapy remains chemotherapy, and in most cases it is cisplatin- and gemcitabine-based chemotherapy. The trial TOPAZ-1 was looking to see, can we advance these outcomes for these patients with the use of immunotherapy? Patients were randomized to receiving cisplatin and gemcitabine, or cisplatin and gemcitabine plus durvalumab. Cisplatin and gemcitabine was given for a period of time, as is consistent traditional practice, and the durvalumab was continued until disease progression. The results, as shared at the ASCO GI meeting, suggest that there is a meaningful benefit in overall survival. I think that really is great news for patients and their families with this disease.

Transcript edited for clarity.