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Gregory J. Riely, MD, PhD
Gregory J. Riely, MD, PhD
Posted: Tuesday, June 18, 2024
Despite the efficacy of checkpoint inhibitors in treating metastatic non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), some patients do not respond to treatment or experience disease progression after treatment. According to study findings published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, the CONTACT-01 trial aimed to evaluate the efficacy of the monoclonal antibody atezolizumab plus the tyrosine kinase inhibitor cabozantinib in this patient population. However, this therapeutic strategy did not significantly improve overall survival compared with docetaxel, explained Joel Neal, MD, PhD, of the Stanford Cancer Institute, Palo Alto, California, and colleagues. The study authors said they await the results of ongoing trials in checkpoint inhibitor–refractory NSCLC.
A total of 366 patients with metastatic NSCLC were recruited for the phase III study. All were randomly assigned to receive treatment with either atezolizumab and cabozantinib (n = 186) or docetaxel (n = 180). Patients were closely monitored to assess their clinical outcomes.
The study findings revealed comparable overall survival for patients treated with combination atezolizumab plus cabozantinib (10.7 months) compared with patients treated with docetaxel (10.5 months, stratified hazard ratio [HR] = 0.88). In addition, the median progression-free survival was 4.6 months and 4.0 months for patients treated with atezolizumab plus cabozantinib and docetaxel, respectively (stratified HR = 0.74).
A total of 39.5% of patients receiving atezolizumab plus cabozantinib experienced grade 3 or 4 treatment-related adverse events compared with 34.7% of patients receiving docetaxel. Moreover, a similar number of grade 5 treatment-related adverse events were reported by both groups of patients (7.6% with atezolizumab plus cabozantinib vs 6.0% with docetaxel).
Disclosure: For full disclosures of the study authors, visit ascopubs.org.
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