Imfinzi Regimen Demonstrates 22% Survival Benefit in Early Gastric and GEJ Cancer

In a recent video interview with Applied Clinical Trials, Nancy Ghattas, VP, US Oncology Commercial Franchise Head of Immuno-Oncology, AstraZeneca, discussed the significance of the Phase III MATTERHORN trial (NCT04592913) results for patients with early-stage or locally advanced gastric and gastroesophageal junction (GEJ) cancers. She highlighted how the Imfinzi-based perioperative regimen demonstrated a 22% reduction in the risk of death and improved overall survival regardless of PD-L1 status, marking the first immunotherapy in this setting to show such benefit. Ghattas emphasized the trial’s potential to establish a new standard of care in gastric and GEJ cancers and reflected on how these findings align with AstraZeneca’s broader immuno-oncology strategy to bring curative-intent treatments to patients earlier in their cancer journey.

The below interview transcript was lightly edited for clarity.

ACT: The MATTERHORN trial showed a 22% reduction in the risk of death with the Imfinzi regimen. How significant is this finding for patients with early-stage or locally advanced gastric and GEJ cancers?

Ghattas: Thanks for the question. If I might step back, there are almost 30,000 patients diagnosed every year in the US with gastric cancer, of which about 10,000 unfortunately pass away within that same year. For the last 20 years or so, there hasn’t been much advancement in gastric or gastroesophageal cancer—[treatment has largely relied on] surgery and chemotherapy.

So now, for the first time ever, we see with the MATTERHORN study the importance of an IO perioperative regimen with Imfinzi, where we can really bend the curve and see what you’ve mentioned—the 22% overall survival benefit. And this is really groundbreaking and practice-changing because there was nothing there before. Now, we’re seeing this advancement.

Furthermore, this overall survival benefit has been observed across multiple subgroups, including PD-L1 status—which means it doesn’t matter whether patients have high or low PD-L1 expression; we are seeing a benefit. And importantly, seven out of 10 patients are now alive at three years after the MATTERHORN regimen, which again is truly practice-changing and has the potential to become the new standard of care for locally advanced early gastric and gastroesophageal cancer.