Combination of immunotherapy and targeted therapy improves survival for patients with advanced colorectal cancer

A new study led by UCLA investigators found that combining zanzalintinib, a targeted therapy drug, and atezolizumab, an immune checkpoint inhibitor, helped patients with metastatic colorectal cancer, the second most common cause of cancer death in the U.S., live longer and control their disease better than with the standard treatment drug regorafenib.

The findings, simultaneously published in The Lancet and presented at the European Society for Medical Oncology Congress, mark the first time an immunotherapy-based regimen has demonstrated a survival benefit in the vast majority of patients with metastatic colorectal cancer.

"This study represents an important step forward for a group of patients who have historically had very few treatment options," said Dr. J. Randolph Hecht, professor of clinical medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and first author of the study. "We may finally be finding ways to make immunotherapy work for more patients with colorectal cancer."

Outcomes for metastatic colorectal cancer remain poor, with only about 15% of patients surviving five years. Patients whose cancer no longer responds to standard therapies often face limited life expectancy and few effective treatments.

While some patients with metastatic colorectal cancer benefit from immunotherapy drugs like immune checkpoint inhibitors, they only work well for the approximately 5% of patients whose tumors have specific genetic features known as MSI-H or dMMR. For the other 95% of patients, immunotherapies have not shown a clear benefit and there's still a big need for better treatments once standard therapies stop working.

Read the full story on the UCLA Health website.