MONDAY, Sept. 11, 2017 (HealthDay News) -- For patients with locally advanced, unresectable, non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC), the anti-programmed death ligand 1 antibody durvalumab is associated with significantly longer progression-free survival compared with placebo, according to a study published online Sept. 8 in the New England Journal of Medicine. The research was published to coincide with the European Society of Medical Oncology Congress, held from Sept. 8 to 12 in Madrid.
Scott J. Antonia, M.D., Ph.D., from the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute in Tampa, Fla., and colleagues randomized 709 patients with stage III NSCLC in a 2:1 ratio to receive durvalumab (473 patients) or placebo (236 patients) every two weeks for up to one year.
The researchers found that the median progression-free survival from randomization was 16.8 and 5.6 months for durvalumab and placebo, respectively (stratified hazard ratio for disease progression or death, 0.52); the 12- and 18-month progression-free survival rates were 55.9 and 35.3 percent, respectively, and 44.2 and 27.0 percent, respectively. A significantly higher response rate was seen with durvalumab versus placebo (28.4 versus 16.0 percent), with a longer median duration of response (72.8 versus 46.8 percent of patients had ongoing response at 18 months). Durvalumab was associated with significantly longer median time to death or distant metastasis (23.2 versus 14.6 months). Grade 3 or 4 adverse events occurred in 29.9 and 26.1 percent of patients who received durvalumab and placebo, respectively.
"Progression-free survival was significantly longer with durvalumab than with placebo," the authors write.
Several authors disclosed financial ties to pharmaceutical companies, including AstraZeneca, which manufactures durvalumab and funded the study.
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