Long-term survival follow-up of atezolizumab in combination with platinum-based doublet chemotherapy in patients with advanced non–small-cell lung cancer

Abstract Background Before the availability of immunotherapy, chemotherapy was standard first-line therapy for non–small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) lacking actionable gene alterations. Preclinical evidence suggests chemotherapy is immunomodulatory, supporting chemotherapy/immunotherapy combinations. Atezolizumab, anti-programmed death ligand-1 (PD-L1) antibody, blocks programmed cell death protein-1 and B7.1 interaction with PD-L1. GP28328 ( NCT01633970 ) assessed atezolizumab with chemotherapy in multiple tumours; we report results for advanced, treatment-naive NSCLC. Methods Patients received atezolizumab plus carboplatin with paclitaxel (Arm C: atezo/cb/pac), pemetrexed (Arm D: atezo/cb/pem, maintenance pemetrexed permitted), or nab-paclitaxel (Arm E: atezo/cb/nab-pac), four–six cycles, then atezolizumab maintenance. Primary end-point was safety; secondary end-points were objective response rate (ORR), progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS). Results Seventy-six NSCLC patients were enrolled (n = 25, 25 and 26 for Arms C, D and E, respectively). Common treatment-related grade III/IV adverse events were neutropenia (36% atezo/cb/pac, 36% atezo/cb/pem, 42% atezo/cb/nab-pac) and anaemia (16% atezo/cb/pac, 16% atezo/cb/pem, 31% atezo/cb/nab-pac). Confirmed ORRs were 36% atezo/cb/pac, 68% atezo/cb/pem (one complete response [CR]) and 46% atezo/cb/nab-pac (four CRs). Median PFS was 7.1 months, (95% confidence interval [CI]: 4.2–8.3), 8.4 months (95% CI: 4.7–11) and 5.7 months (95% CI: 4.4–14.8), respectively. Median OS was 12.9 months (95% CI: 8.8–21.3), 18.9 months (95% CI: 9.9–27.4) and 17.0 months (95% CI: 12.7–not evaluable), respectively. Conclusion Atezolizumab with chemotherapy was well tolerated with encouraging efficacy, though the analysis was limited by small numbers. NSCLC chemotherapy combination studies are ongoing. ClinicalTrials.gov identifier NCT01633970 .