Durvalumab with chemoradiotherapy for limited-stage small-cell lung cancer

Background: The current standard treatment for limited-stage small-cell lung cancer (LS-SCLC) is chemotherapy with concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CCRT).

Methods: In this single-arm phase II study, patients with LS-SCLC received four cycles of etoposide, cisplatin, and durvalumab every 3 weeks. Thoracic radiotherapy of 52.5 Gy in 25 once-daily fractions was started with the third cycle of chemoimmunotherapy. After CCRT plus durvalumab, patients received durvalumab consolidation therapy every 4 weeks for a maximum of 2 years after study enrolment. Prophylactic cranial irradiation (PCI) was recommended.

Results: Fifty-one patients were enrolled, and 50 were included in the full analysis set. With the median follow-up duration of 26.6 months, the median PFS was 14.4 months (95% confidence interval: 10.3-NA), and the 24-month PFS rate was 42.0%. The median overall survival was not reached with a 24-month overall survival rate of 67.8%. The positive PD-L1 group (n = 22) was not associated with longer PFS (hazard ratio, 0.70; 0.31-1.58) and overall survival (0.64; 0.22-1.84) compared with the negative PD-L1 group (n = 20). Among the 43 patients who were candidates for PCI treatment, the PCI group (n = 22) had significantly fewer events of brain metastasis as the first failure sites compared to the no PCI group (n = 21) (13.6% vs. 42.9%, P = 0.033). There were several grade 3 or 4 adverse events which were well managed with appropriate supportive care.

Conclusions: Durvalumab with CCRT for LS-SCLC exhibited promising clinical efficacy with a tolerable safety profile, prompting its validation in a randomized study.

Trial registration: NCT03585998.