The optimal chemotherapy for stage III non-small cell lung cancer patients

Curative-Intent Treatment with Durvalumab in Early-Stage Cancers

The introduction of immunotherapy has fundamentally transformed the treatment landscape in cancer, providing long-term survival benefit for patients with advanced disease across multiple tumor types, including non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). In the placebo-controlled phase 3 PACIFIC trial, the PD-L1 inhibitor durvalumab demonstrated significant improvements in progression-free survival and overall survival in patients with unresectable, stage III NSCLC who had not progressed after platinum-based chemoradiotherapy (CRT). These findings have led to the widespread acceptance of the 'PACIFIC regimen' (durvalumab after CRT) as the standard of care in this setting. Moreover, the PACIFIC trial is the first study to demonstrate a proven survival advantage with an immunotherapy in a curative-intent setting, thereby providing a strong rationale for further investigation of durvalumab in early-stage cancers. Herein, we describe the extensive clinical development program for durvalumab across multiple tumor types in curative-intent settings, outlining the scientific rationale(s) for its use and highlighting the innovative research (e.g., personalized cancer monitoring) advanced by these trials.

A prospective study of the efficacy of a combination of autologous dendritic cells, cytokine-induced killer cells, and chemotherapy in advanced non-small cell lung cancer patients

Dendritic cells (DC) play a crucial role in the induction of an effective antitumor immune response. Cytokine-induced killer (CIK) cells, a subset of T lymphocytes, have the capacity to eliminate cancer cells. This study was to evaluate the correlation between the frequency of DC/CIK immunotherapies following regular chemotherapy, the time-to-progression (TTP), and overall survival (OS) of advanced non-small lung cancer patients. Sixty patients with IIIB-IV non-small-cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC) were enrolled from August 2007 to December 2009 and were randomized into two groups. All 60 patients received four courses of navelbine-platinum (NP) chemotherapy. In one group, 30 patients were treated with adoptive autologous DC/CIK cell transfusion twice every 30 days. In the other group, the patients received immunotherapies more than twice every 30 days. The adverse effects, TTP, and OS were evaluated between the two groups. Median survival time of all 60 patients was 13.80 months. The 1-, 2-, and 3-year overall survival rates were 60.0, 21.7, and 15.0 %, respectively. The 1-, 2-, and 3-year overall survival rates of patients receiving more than two immunotherapies were 63.3, 30.0, and 23.3 %, and the rates of those receiving two immunotherapies were 56.7, 13.3, and 6.7 %, respectively. The difference between the two groups was statistically significant (P = 0.037). Compared with patients in the fewer immunotherapies group, TTP in the group receiving more immunotherapies significantly prolonged, with the median improving from 6.2 months (95 % CI, 5.35-9.24) to 7.3 months (95 % CI, 5.45-6.95; P = 0.034). The adverse effects of chemoimmunotherapy were tolerable. Advanced NSCLC patients can benefit from the combination of DC/CIK immunotherapies following conventional chemotherapy. More than two immunotherapies improved TTP and OS of those patients in this study.

Long-term results of a randomized controlled trial evaluating preoperative chemotherapy in resectable non-small cell lung cancer

OBJECTIVE

We aimed to evaluate whether preoperative chemotherapy provides benefits in the survival and prognosis of patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in resectable stages I to IIIA, except T1N0.

METHODS

In this randomized, controlled trial, 356 patients with stage I (except for T1N0), II and IIIA NSCLC were assigned to either the preoperative chemotherapy plus surgery arm (179 patients) or the primary surgery arm (177 patients). Both treatments were followed by adjuvant chemotherapy. The end point of this study included overall survival (OS), progression-free survival (PFS), and survival rate associated with clinical remission.

RESULTS

Statistical survival difference was found between the preoperative chemotherapy plus surgery arm and the surgery-alone arm. However, the median survival time (MST) in the preoperative chemotherapy arm was lower than that of surgery-alone arm (MST, 45.42 months vs 57.59 months) (P = 0.016). When comparing the effect of preoperative chemotherapy at each stage of NSCLC, a statistical survival difference was found in stage II NSCLC but not in stage I and IIIA (MST 40.86 months vs 80.81 months) (P = 0.044). However, no statistically significant difference in PFS was noticed between the two arms, except for stage I NSCLC (hazard radio [HR] = 0.87; 95% CI, 0.561-1.629; P = 0.027). The survival rate was higher for patients who had clinical remission after preoperative chemotherapy, but the differences did not reach statistical significance (MST 42.10 months vs 35.33 months) (P = 0.630).

CONCLUSION

Preoperative chemotherapy did not show benefits in OS and PFS for stage I-IIIA NSCLC patients.

Strengths and weaknesses of immunotherapy for advanced non-small-cell lung cancer: a meta-analysis of 12 randomized controlled trials

Background

Lung cancer is one of the leading causes of cancer death worldwide. Non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) accounts for approximately 85% of all lung cancers. Immunotherapy has yielded no consistent benefit to date for those patients. Assessing the objective efficacy and safety of immunotherapy for advanced NSCLC patients will help to instruct the future development of immunotherapeutic drugs.

Methodology and Principal Findings

We performed a meta-analysis of 12 randomized controlled trials including 3134 patients (1570 patients in the immunotherapy group and 1564 patients in the control group) with histologically confirmed stage IIIA, IIIB, or IV NSCLC. The analysis was executed with efficacy end points regarding overall survival (OS), progression-free survival (PFS), complete response (CR), partial response (PR), and total effective rate. Overall unstratified OS, PFS, PR, and total effective rate were significantly improved in advanced NSCLC patients in the immunotherapy group (P = 0.0007, 0.0004, 0.002, 0.003, respectively), whereas CR was not improved (P = 0.97). Subgroup analysis showed that monoclonal antibody (mAb) immunotherapy significantly improved the PFS, PR, and total effective rate and showed a trend of improving OS of advanced NSCLC patients compared with the control group, with one kind of adverse event being significantly dominant. Compared with the control group, the vaccine subgroup showed no significant difference with regard to serious adverse events, whereas cytokine immunotherapy significantly induced three kinds of serious adverse events.

Conclusions

Immunotherapy works efficiently on advanced NSCLC patients. Of several immunotherapies, mAb therapy may be a potential immunotherapy for advanced NSCLC patients, and become a standard complementary therapeutic approach in the future if the issues concerning toxicity and allergenicity of mAbs have been overcome.