WCLC 2017: 3-Year Survival With Atezolizumab Versus Docetaxel in Non–Small Cell Lung Cancer
Posted: Tuesday, October 17, 2017
Based on the 3-year survival data of the phase II POPLAR trial, atezolizumab provides a survival benefit compared with docetaxel in patients with advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). In fact, this benefit was observed across both histology and programmed cell death ligand 1 expression subgroups. This is reportedly the longest follow-up reported to date of a randomized immunotherapy trial in the second-line setting for NSCLC.
Keunchil Park, MD, PhD, of Samsung Medical Center, Seoul, South Korea, presented the 3-year survival data and duration of response findings at the 2017 International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC) World Conference on Lung Cancer (Abstract MA 10.03) in Yokohama, Japan. The data from the POPLAR trial have been confirmed in the randomized phase III OAK trial.
Both the 2-year and 3-year survival rates favored atezolizumab over docetaxel (32.2% vs. 16.6% and 18.7% vs. 10.0%, respectively). Although the overall response rate was similar with atezolizumab and docetaxel, the investigators reported the median duration of response was three times longer with atezolizumab (22.3 vs. 7.2 months). As for toxicity, the favorable safety profile of atezolizumab compared with docetaxel mirrored that of previous reports.
