AstraZeneca's Lynparza fails in gastric cancer combination test

LONDON (Reuters) - AstraZeneca's recently approved ovarian cancer drug Lynparza failed to increase overall survival significantly when given with chemotherapy to patients with gastric cancer in a late-stage trial, the drugmaker said on Wednesday. The news is a setback for the British drugmaker, which reported positive results with an experimental acute asthma drug on Tuesday, although the result may have limited read-across for Lynparza in other cancer settings. AstraZeneca said it was disappointed, but noted this particular trial was unusual in using a low dose and combining Lynparza with a standard chemotherapy. The company has high hopes for Lynparza, which is central to its goal of building a portfolio of compounds targeting DNA damage response (DDR) mechanisms in cancer cells. (Reporting by Ben Hirschler; Editing by Mark Potter)