Amgen Combo Cuts Death Risk 58% in Lung Cancer Trial
Amgen said adding Imdelltra to AstraZeneca’s Imfinzi cut the risk of death by 58% in a late-stage trial involving patients with extensive-stage small cell lung cancer. Median overall survival was 21.1 months with the combination, compared with 12.7 months with Imfinzi alone. Researchers tested the treatment as maintenance therapy after initial treatment with Imfinzi and chemotherapy.
Amgen drug combo cuts the risk of death by 58% for patients with extensive-stage small cell lung cancer, according to full results from a late-stage trial released Saturday. The study tested Amgen’s Imdelltra alongside AstraZeneca’s Imfinzi as maintenance therapy after patients received initial treatment with Imfinzi and chemotherapy.
Median overall survival reached 21.1 months for patients receiving the combination, compared with 12.7 months for those who continued on Imfinzi alone. The findings could offer more time for people with a fast-growing cancer that has spread beyond the lung where it began.
Combination tested after initial treatment
The trial enrolled patients whose cancer had not progressed after initial treatment. Researchers examined whether adding Imdelltra could help them live longer than continuing Imfinzi alone, which is already approved as a first treatment for this type of lung cancer.
The results do not mean every patient will live for the median period. A median of 21.1 months means half the patients in the combination group were alive for at least roughly that long, according to the report.
Dr. Paul Burton, Amgen’s chief medical officer, described the data as potentially practice-changing. “I think there are moments in medicine when you see a piece of data that is so profound that it's going to transform the standard of care for patients, and I think, honestly, we're at that moment,” he said in an interview.
Burton said the treatment “has the potential to take on one of the most aggressive cancers that we deal with today, and almost convert it into a chronic disease.” He added that “these data say that's a possibility.”
Need for more durable treatment
Small cell lung cancer can respond initially to chemotherapy, but the disease often returns or progresses within months, said lead trial investigator Dr. Jacob Sands, associate chief of the Lowe Center for Thoracic Oncology at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
Immunotherapy has helped a small subset of patients achieve years of disease control, Sands said. Most patients have not seen similarly durable benefits, leaving a need for more effective options. The trial reported benefits across patient subgroups, including people whose cancer had spread to the brain or liver, conditions associated with poorer treatment outcomes.
For patients and clinicians, the difference in median survival is a concrete signal from the trial, but the findings concern a specific treatment sequence: Imdelltra was added after initial Imfinzi and chemotherapy, not tested here as a replacement for that first treatment.
Sands said the median survival figure could change as researchers collect longer-term follow-up. It “may evolve further and hopefully will substantially improve,” he said, pointing to sustained benefit over years in a smaller, early-stage trial of the combination.
Amgen said the results suggest using Imdelltra earlier in treatment could alter the disease’s trajectory. The drug is currently approved for patients whose small cell lung cancer has progressed while they are receiving, or after they have received, platinum-based chemotherapy.
Sales add commercial stakes
The trial results also have commercial significance for Amgen. Imdelltra recorded $288 million in sales during the second quarter, up 115% year over year, and generated $627 million in global sales in 2025. The drug appears on course to reach the $1 billion sales threshold associated with a blockbuster medicine.
There are roughly 31,000 new small cell lung cancer cases in the U.S. each year, and an estimated 60% to 70% are extensive-stage disease, the report said. The late-stage trial’s survival comparison puts the focus on whether the combination’s benefit holds as follow-up continues: 21.1 months with Imdelltra and Imfinzi, against 12.7 months with Imfinzi alone.
