AZ Completes ZEST Enrollment

AstraZeneca has completed enrollment of patients in the ZEST (Zactima Efficacy Study versus Tarceva) study, the first of four Phase III trials for the investigational once-daily oral anti-cancer drug vandetanib. Data from the study is expected in 2008.

ZEST is a randomized, double-blind, multi-center Phase III study to assess the efficacy of vandetanib versus erlotinib in overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) in more than 1,150 patients with locally-advanced or metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) after failure of first-line anti-cancer therapy.

“Non-small cell lung cancer is an area of high unmet medical need, and we hope vandetanib will offer a beneficial new treatment option for people with lung cancer,” said Dr. Peter Langmuir, Medical Science Director at AstraZeneca.

ZEST is part of a Phase III clinical trial program to gain a broad understanding of how vandetanib may benefit people with lung cancer. The other studies also have punchy names:

• ZODIAC (vandetanib + docetaxel versus docetaxel alone)
• ZEAL (vandetanib + pemetrexed versus placebo + pemetrexed); and,
• ZEPHYR (vandetanib + best supportive care (BSC) versus placebo + BSC).