Comparing Nanoparticle Albumin-Bound Paclitaxel With Docetaxel in Advanced Lung Cancer
Posted: Wednesday, August 25, 2021
According to the results from a recent phase III trial, reported in the Journal of Thoracic Oncology, researchers compared solvent-based paclitaxel with nanoparticle albumin bound (nab) paclitaxel in the treatment of patients with advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Yasuto Yoneshima, MD, PhD, and colleagues from the Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Kyushu University in Fukuoka, Japan, found that treatment with nab-paclitaxel was noninferior compared with docetaxel in regard to overall survival and superior in regard to progression-free survival and objective response rate.
A total of 503 patients with advanced NSCLC previously treated with cytotoxic chemotherapy were enrolled in this trial. Patients were randomly assigned to receive docetaxel (60 mg/m2) on day 1 or nab-paclitaxel (100 mg/m2) on days 1, 8, and 15 of a 21-day cycle.
Median overall survival was 16.2 months for the 252 patients receiving nab-paclitaxel (95% confidence interval [CI] = 14.4–19.0 months) and 13.6 months for the 251 patients receiving docetaxel (hazard ratio [HR] = 0.85, 95.2% CI = 0.68–1.07). Progression-free survival in those who received nab-paclitaxel was 4.2 months (95% CI = 3.9–5.0 months) versus 3.4 months for those given docetaxel (HR = 0.76, P = .0042). The objective response rate with nab-paclitaxel was 29.9% (95% CI = 24.0%–36.2%) versus 15.4% with docetaxel (95% CI = 10.9%–20.7%, P = .0002).
In patients with squamous cell histology, analysis revealed a significant improvement in objective response rate with nab-paclitaxel (30.4%, 95% CI = 17.7%–45.8%) versus docetaxel (10.4%, 95% CI = 3.5%–22.7%; P = .0207). In patients with nonsquamous histology, the objective response rate with nab-paclitaxel was 29.7% (95% CI = 23.2%–36.9%) versus 16.7% for docetaxel (95% CI = 11.5%–22.9%, P = .0042).
The authors concluded: “Nab-paclitaxel for patients with advanced non–small cell lung cancer previously treated with cytotoxic chemotherapy thus provides a clinically significant benefit in terms of its effectiveness and tolerability.”
Disclosure: For full disclosures of the study authors, visit sciencedirect.com.
