Outcomes With Durvalumab After Chemoradiotherapy for NSCLC
Posted: Wednesday, January 27, 2021
A new standard of care for patients with inoperable stage III non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) has become maintenance treatment with durvalumab after chemoradiotherapy. Lukas Kaesmann, MD, of Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich, Germany, and colleagues analyzed real-world data to evaluate the impact of chemoradiotherapy alone versus chemoradiotherapy followed by durvalumab on outcomes in patients with NSCLC. Their results were presented during the 2020 Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) Annual Meeting (Abstract 279) and published in the Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer.
This retrospective and prospective study evaluated local regional recurrence–free survival, progression-free survival, and overall survival in 133 patients with inoperable stage III NSCLC between 2011 and 2019. Patients were evaluated from the last day of radiotherapy. A total of 113 patients (85%) were treated with chemoradiotherapy, and 20 patients (15%) with PD-L1–positive disease received chemoradiotherapy and durvalumab; the median time to the start of durvalumab after radiotherapy was 0.8 months. Median overall survival was 24.7 months.
At the time of evaluation, no deaths were reported in the group of patients who received chemoradiotherapy plus durvalumab. Patients who received durvalumab after chemoradiotherapy showed improved local regional recurrence–free-survival (P = .013), progression-free survival (P = .033), and overall survival (P = .002) compared with the historical cohort of patients treated with chemoradiotherapy alone.
The research team next matched 18 patients who received chemoradiotherapy plus durvalumab with 36 who received chemoradiotherapy alone. The 12-month local regional recurrence–free-survival, progression-free survival, and overall survival comparisons were 80%, 50%, and 100% in those given durvalumab versus 38.8%, 22%, and 75%, respectively, in those not given durvalumab.
“This real-world analysis demonstrates that durvalumab after chemoradiotherapy has led to significant improvement of local regional control, progression-free survival, and overall survival in PD-L1–expressing inoperable stage III NSCLC patients compared to a historical context,” concluded the researchers.
Disclosure: For full disclosures of the study authors, visit jitc.bmj.com.
