Significantly greater event-free survival with perioperative durvalumab plus neoadjuvant chemotherapy in Resectable Non-Small-Cell Lung Cancer

According to a recent study, patients with resectable non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) had significantly greater event-free survival and pathological complete response with perioperative durvalumab plus neoadjuvant chemotherapy than with neoadjuvant chemotherapy alone. This study’s findings were published in The New England Journal of Medicine.

This study included 802 patients who were randomly assigned to receive either durvalumab (400 patients) or placebo (402 patients) every 3 weeks for 4 cycles before surgery. This was followed by adjuvant durvalumab or placebo intravenously every 4 weeks for 12 cycles. The primary end points of the study were event-free survival and pathological complete response.

At the end of the study, it was found that duration of event-free survival was significantly longer with durvalumab than with placebo. After 1 year, event-free survival was observed in 73.4% and 64.5% of patients in the durvalumab and placebo groups, respectively. Similarly, the incidence of pathological complete response was significantly greater with durvalumab when compared to the placebo. Grade 3 and 4 adverse events occurred in 42.4% and 43.2% of patients in the durvalumab and placebo groups, respectively.

Based on the above results, it can be concluded that perioperative durvalumab plus neoadjuvant chemotherapy may be associated with significantly greater event-free survival and pathological complete response in patients with resectable NSCLC.