According to a recent article, the overall survival of patients with untreated metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) were significantly improved by the addition of two immunotherapeutic drugs to chemotherapy.
Metastatic Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer
Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is the most common kind of lung cancer. When NSCLC spreads to other parts of the body, it’s known as metastatic NSCLC.
There are four stages of NSCLC, with stage 4 being the most severe. While this cancer can spread to lymph nodes starting in stage 2A, stage 4 is when the cancer cells have spread to other areas in the chest or other parts of the body.
The most common places for NSCLC to spread include the:
- bones
- lungs
- brain
- liver
- adrenal glands
If the lung cancer has metastasized, the symptoms can vary. The symptoms are often related to the area of the body to which the cancer has spread.
Symptoms can include:
- bone pain
- dizziness, balance problems, or weakness if the cancer has spread to the brain
- yellowing of the skin and eyes if it has spread to the liver
- swelling of lymph nodes in neck or near the collarbone
Tremelimumab and Durvalumab
Tremelimumab and durvalumab are both immunotherapeutic drugs, and the combination of them with chemotherapy significantly improved the overall survival rate of patients with metastatic NSCLC. However, the benefits of this combination may vary depending on a patient’s PD-L1 expression. PD-L1 keeps the body’s immune responses under control.
The Trial
1,013 patients diagnosed with untreated metastatic NSCLC participated in the trial. The trial was randomized, meaning some patients received chemotherapy alone and others received chemo plus durvalumab or durvalumab plus tremelimumab. The endpoints of the trial consisted of the progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS).
The primarily analysis demonstrated that durvalumab plus chemotherapy improved the median PFS versus just chemotherapy. Furthermore, the secondary analysis revealed substantial improvement in both PFS and OS with add-on durvalumab-tremelimumab when compared to chemotherapy. In fact, twice as many patients who were a part of the durvalumab-tremelimumab group were still alive without disease progression after a year.
“First-line durvalumab plus tremelimumab and chemotherapy demonstrated statistically significant and clinically meaningful improvements in both PFS and overall survival versus chemotherapy, especially among the nonsquamous patients,” Melissa Johnson, MD, of the Sarah Cannon Research Institute said of the study results.
