Amgen's cancer drug fails to increase overall survival rate

THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. Despite prolonging survival without disease progression in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer, an investigational drug from Amgen failed to increase overall survival in a late-stage clinical trial, the biotech company said Thursday.

Amgen announced results of a phase 3 clinical trial of Vectibix (panitumumab) administered with the chemotherapy drug FOLFOX as a first-line treatment for the cancer.

An analysis of the study showed that the combination of Vectibix and FOLFOX increased overall survival of two years, compared with slightly less than 20 months in patients treated with FOLFOX alone, though the results were not statistically significant.