Mirati Therapeutics joins Cancer Research UK’s lung cancer programme

Mirati Therapeutics has joined Cancer Research UK’s Stratified Medicine Programme, which aims to develop new treatment options for patients with advanced lung cancer through the National Lung Matrix Trial.

Mirati will provide its experimental drug sitravatinib and financial support to the Stratified Medicine Programme under the collaboration.

Sitravatinib is expected to be tested in three arms of the trial.

The solution is designed to target genetic vulnerabilities collectively found in nearly 5.5% of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients.

It has the potential to offer a new treatment option to NSCLC patients.

Cancer Research UK clinical, population and early detection research director Dr Ian Walker said: “This partnership exemplifies the flexible approach of Cancer Research UK’s Stratified Medicine Programme and the National Lung Matrix Trial to improve our understanding and accelerate progress in treating lung cancer.”

AstraZeneca, Pfizer and others have already partnered with Cancer Research UK for the National Lung Matrix Trial.

The trial is a Phase II study that intends to assess a number of new drugs for the treatment of NSCLC, the most common type of lung cancer.

Researchers will screen about 2,000 people, with around 610 expected to be eligible to participate in the trial.

The enrolled patients will be assigned to different treatment groups after changes in their cancer cell genes are identified.

Identifying the gene changes will help investigators to specifically target and try to kill the cancer cells or prevent them from growing, according to researchers.

In the first year of treatment, patients are expected to undergo a CT scan every six weeks, followed by a CT scan every 12 weeks.