Atezolizumab has PFS benefit in first-line squamous NSCLC

June 3, 2018|Hematology and Oncology

REPORTING FROM ASCO 2018

“This report dramatically broadens the group of patients with squamous cell NSCLC who can benefit from the addition of immunotherapy to chemotherapy as front-line treatment,” asserted ASCO Expert David Graham, MD, FASCO. “We previously thought that you needed a high level of PD-L1 to benefit and to get the best results from immunotherapy. The results of this trial, the largest randomized trial to date in this population, show that that is indeed not the case: benefit of immunotherapy was seen across all groups.”

Patients receiving chemotherapy for advanced lung cancer are devastated when told that their disease has progressed, he commented. “What we see with the results of this study is that we can actually double the chance that they don’t have to hear that bad news in the first year of treatment.”

“We hope that the results seen with progression-free survival translate to improved overall survival. If and when that is shown, I think we will clearly have a new standard of care for the front-line treatment of squamous cell NSCLC,” concluded Dr. Graham, who is also medical director at the Levine Cancer Institute in Charlotte, N.C.

Study details

With a median follow-up of 17.1 months in IMpower131, median progression-free survival was 5.6 months with chemotherapy alone and 6.3 months when atezolizumab was added to chemotherapy (hazard ratio, 0.71; P = .0001).