First phase III trial of Zactima in NSCLC completes enrollment

WILMINGTON, Delaware-AstraZeneca has completed enrollment of patients in ZEST (Zactima Efficacy Study vs Tarceva), the first of four phase III lung cancer trials for its once-daily oral anticancer drug Zactima (vandetanib). The agent inhibits VEGFR, EGFR, and RET tyrosine kinases. ZEST is comparing vandetanib against erlotinib (Tarceva) in more than 1,150 patients with locally advanced or metastatic NSCLC after first-line failure. The other studies are ZODIAC (vandetanib + docetaxel [Taxotere] vs docetaxel alone); ZEAL (vandetanib + pemetrexed [Alimta] vs placebo/pemetrexed); and ZEPHYR (vandetanib + best supportive care vs placebo/BSC).