Shares of Novocure (NVCR 3.31%) were jumping 6.3% higher as of 11:15 a.m. ET on Thursday after rising as much as 9.2% earlier in the day. The nice gain came after the company announced results from a phase 3 study evaluating its Tumor Treating Fields (TTFields) therapy in treating patients with brain metastases from non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).
How good were Novocure's results?
Novocure reported that patients receiving TTFields therapy in the late-stage study had a median time to intracranial progression of 21.9 months. This result reflected a statistically significant improvement from the 11.3 months for patients treated with only supportive care such as anticoagulants, nausea medications, and steroids. Minesh Mehta, Miami Cancer Institute's chief of radiation oncology and deputy director, said TTFields "is potentially practice changing" in treating brain metastases.
However, the news wasn't all positive for Novocure. The company revealed that preliminary analyses of key secondary endpoints of the study, including overall survival, radiological response rate, and time to neurocognitive failure, weren't achieved. A full analysis of these secondary endpoints is still underway.
Is Novocure stock a buy?
Novocure has greatly disappointed investors over the last 12 months with the healthcare stock plunging more than 70%. Unfortunately, I don't think the results from the brain metastases study are enough to make the stock a buy.
The company hopes to win regulatory approvals for TTFields in treating non-small cell lung cancer. However, it could have an uphill battle ahead because of questions about the design of its phase 3 study in the indication.
