WILMINGTON, DE — In a major advance for breast cancer treatment, AstraZeneca and Daiichi Sankyo announced that their drug DATROWAY (datopotamab deruxtecan-dlnk) extended the lives of patients with metastatic triple-negative breast cancer by an unprecedented five months compared to standard chemotherapy.
Results from the Phase III TROPION-Breast02 trial, presented at the 2025 European Society for Medical Oncology Congress in Berlin, showed that DATROWAY improved median overall survival to 23.7 months, compared to 18.7 months for patients receiving chemotherapy. The drug also reduced the risk of disease progression or death by 43 percent, marking the first time any therapy has significantly improved overall survival over chemotherapy in this hard-to-treat population.
The study focused on patients for whom immunotherapy was not an option, a group historically faced with limited treatment success and poor prognoses. Lead investigator Dr. Rebecca Dent of the National Cancer Centre Singapore described the findings as “remarkable,” noting that DATROWAY nearly doubled the period patients lived without their cancer worsening.
DATROWAY, a TROP2-directed antibody drug conjugate jointly developed by AstraZeneca and Daiichi Sankyo, was also associated with fewer treatment-related discontinuations than chemotherapy and maintained a manageable safety profile.
Executives from both companies called the results a turning point in the treatment of triple-negative breast cancer, with AstraZeneca’s head of oncology research Dr. Susan Galbraith highlighting the drug’s potential use in combination with the company’s immunotherapy IMFINZI in future trials.
Triple-negative breast cancer is among the most aggressive and least responsive forms of the disease, affecting roughly 10 to 15 percent of breast cancer patients. For those who cannot undergo immunotherapy, chemotherapy has long been the only standard first-line treatment—until now.
With these results, DATROWAY could redefine expectations for survival and disease control, offering new hope to patients who have had few options beyond traditional regimens.
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