New results show that gotistobart outperforms standard chemotherapy docetaxel in patients with advanced squamous non-small cell lung cancer who have already failed prior immunotherapy.
The study found that gotistobart achieved a much higher response rate, with 20% of patients showing tumor shrinkage compared to just 4.8% with docetaxel. Patients treated with gotistobart also lived longer, with median survival not yet reached, while those on chemotherapy had a median survival of about 10 months. Responses lasted longer as well, averaging 11 months versus 3.8 months with docetaxel. After one year, about a quarter of patients on gotistobart had no disease progression, compared to none in the chemotherapy group.
Gotistobart works differently from older treatments by targeting CTLA-4 in a pH-sensitive way, allowing it to stay active longer inside cells and better remove harmful immune-suppressing cells in tumors while reducing widespread side effects. Its main serious side effects were immune-related, such as inflammation of the colon and liver. In contrast, docetaxel showed typical chemotherapy-related toxicity, especially low white blood cell counts.
Based on these results, the study will move into a larger phase to confirm whether gotistobart can become a new chemotherapy-free standard for this difficult-to-treat lung cancer population.