Dr Sunil Verma Discusses Safety Findings of TOPAZ-1 Trial

Sunil Verma, MD, senior vice president and global head of oncology, medical, at AstraZeneca, discusses the safety findings of the TOPAZ-1 trial.

TOPAZ-1 results were initially presented at the recent American Society of Clinical Oncology Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium and discussed during the Cholangiocarcinoma Foundation 2022 meeting held February 23-25 in Salt Lake City, Utah, and virtually.

Transcript:

Can you discuss the safety results in the TOPAZ-1 trial, which saw higher discontinuation rates for the chemo-only group?

So, when you see that, it suggests a couple of things. One, it tells you about the patient performance status and the patient's ability to tolerate a regimen, which may be directed by the tumor burden. When you see a response more in the combination where the patients are able to stay longer, that's telling us that the tumor burden starts to lessen where the patients are then able to stay on treatment and maintain on treatment much longer as a result. It's maybe less so the reflection of this traditional side effect profile, but it's more so a reflection of the side effect profile, along with an activity profile that allows the patient's performance status and quality of life to be better so that they can stay on treatment much longer, versus a patient who may be just on standard of care who is not driving the clinical benefit and, as a result, is maybe not able to tolerate the standard of care as effectively.