WCLC 2020: 5-Year Survival Update on Pembrolizumab Versus Docetaxel in NSCLC
Posted: Friday, February 26, 2021
Pembrolizumab continues to prove a more effective treatment than docetaxel, based on a 5-year survival update of the IMpower110 trial, presented at the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer 2020 World Conference on Lung Cancer Singapore (WCLC, Abstract FP13.01), held in virtual format in January 2021. According to Roy S. Herbst MD, PhD, of Yale University, and colleagues: “Second-course pembrolizumab provided meaningful disease control in the majority of patients who had disease progression after 2 years of pembrolizumab treatment.”
A total of 1,033 patients with previously treated advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) were randomly assigned to treatment with either pembrolizumab or docetaxel. Patients who were treated with pembrolizumab were given doses of either 2 or 10 mg/kg every 3 weeks, whereas patients treated with docetaxel were given doses of 75 mg/m2 at the same frequency.
Findings showed that overall survival and progression-free survival were better in patients treated with pembrolizumab, as of April 8, 2020, with a median data acquisition time of 67.4 months. Median overall survival for patients treated with pembrolizumab was 11.8 months, whereas for those treated with docetaxel, it was 8.4 months. The authors reported a 5-year overall survival rate of 15.6% for those treated with pembrolizumab and 6.5% for those treated with docetaxel. The 5-year progression-free survival rate with pembrolizumab was 9.4%, compared with 0.7% with docetaxel.
Within the pembrolizumab arm, 79 patients completed 35 cycles or 2 years of treatment and exhibited an overall response rate of 98.7% (15 complete responses, 63 partial responses). The 3-year overall survival rate for this subgroup was 83%. After patients started the second course of treatment, the overall response rate was 52.4%, with 1 patient achieving a complete response and 10, a partial response.
Disclosure: For full disclosures of the study authors, visit wclc2020.iaslc.org.