Project description:BackgroundNeoadjuvant immunotherapy, the focus of current research and treatment modality for long-term survival, has become one of the main options in supporting primary treatment interventions in early NSCLC.MethodsThis was a retrospective analysis of patients with locally resectable NSCLC who received the neoadjuvant drug pembrolizumab combined with chemotherapy and underwent surgical resection. Pathological responses, PFS and OS in the whole sample and subgroups were analyzed.ResultsOf the 61 patients included in this retrospective analysis, 31 (50.82%) achieved a pCR, and 38 (62.30%) obtained an MPR. Patients with a pCR had significantly higher OS than the non-pCR group (HR = 0.093, P = 0.0227); patients with an MPR also had significantly elevated OS compared with the non-MPR group (HR = 0.05357, P = 0.0169). Patients with lymph node metastasis after surgery had significantly reduced OS (HR = 0.01607, p = 0.0004) and PFS (HR = 0.08757, p = 0.0004) than those without lymph node metastasis. There was no significant difference in OS and PFS between squamous cell carcinomas (SCC) group and adenocarcinomas (AD) group. No significant differences in OS and PFS were found between patients administered 2 and 3 cycles of neoadjuvant therapy before surgery, between those administered ≤5 and > 5 cycles of adjuvant therapy post-surgery, and between patients with TPS <50% and ≥50% (all P > 0.05).ConclusionNeoadjuvant immunochemotherapy with pembrolizumab plus chemotherapy in non-small cell lung cancer is safe and tolerable. Both pCR and MPR were closely associated with OS and PFS, reflecting a good response of tumor tissues to drug therapy. Lymph node metastasis after surgery was a poor prognostic factor, reducing OS and PFS.
Project description:BackgroundImmunotherapy (IO)-based strategies have been demonstrated to significantly prolong survival in the perioperative setting of non-oncogene-addicted non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The adoption of such strategies in clinical practice depends on heterogeneous regulatory approvals and on the agreement between medical oncologists and thoracic surgeons on patients' selection.MethodsAn Expert Panel Meeting of medical oncologists and thoracic surgeons was held virtually by the Italian Association of Thoracic Oncology (AIOT) to discuss results of pivotal clinical trials with perioperative chemo-immunotherapy and reach agreement on open issues for the topic, formulating specific statements based on initially proposed discussion questions.ResultsOverall, panelists found agreement on seven statements. With regard to tissue and biomarker analysis, the role of increasing PD-L1 expression in predicting IO efficacy was recognized, whereas ctDNA and pCR were mainly attributed a prognostic role, in the absence of dedicated studies. The panelists acknowledged direct relationship between the benefit of neoadjuvant chemo-immunotherapy approaches and the local burden of disease/mediastinal node involvement, supporting the inclusion of these factors, together with PD-L1, in selecting upfront surgery or induction treatment. The panelists agreed that the current literature data do not answer the issue of assessing the role of the adjuvant phase within a perioperative treatment strategy. Surgical considerations on the role of pneumonectomy and other approaches were also discussed.ConclusionsThis experience highlights the importance of a synergistic approach between oncologists and surgeons to leverage the unmet needs in translating results of IO-perioperative clinical trials into clinical practice in patients with resectable NSCLC.
Project description:BackgroundPembrolizumab has been shown to be effective and safe in improving the survival of patients with advanced non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). However, the effectiveness and safty of pembrolizumab in the induction treatment of patients with potential resectable clinical stage III NSCLC remains undetermined.MethodsA total of 25 patients who received neoadjuvant pembrolizumab plus chemotherapy for preoperative stage III NSCLC between August 2020 and November 2021 in Zhongshan Hospital were retrospectively evaluated, and 21 of them were followed by pulmonary resection. The neoadjuvant treatment was as follows: intravenous pembrolizumab (200 mg) on day 1, carboplatin [target area under the curve (AUC) 5 mg/mL] or cisplatin (75 mg/m2) on day 1, and pemetrexed (500 mg/m2 for adenocarcinoma) or nab-paclitaxel (260 mg/m2 for other subtypes) on day 1 of every 21-day cycle up to two or three cycles.ResultsThe mean age of all 25 patients was 65 years, of whom 22 were men and 3 were women. Seventeen were diagnosed before treatment as clinical stage IIIA, seven as IIIB, and one as IIB. All received neoadjuvant immunotherapy plus chemotherapy. Following induction therapy, 21 patients with stable disease or partial response (PR) according to the Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors (RECIST 1.1) underwent surgical resection without delay. Among the patients who underwent operation, major pathological response (MPR) was achieved in 13 patients, including 6 (28.6%) patients achieved a complete pathological response (CPR). Two patients with partial radiologic remission refused operative treatment, one had progressive disease (PD), and another developed a grade immune pneumonia and could not tolerate surgery. However, none of the adverse events caused surgery delays or deaths.ConclusionsNeoadjuvant pembrolizumab plus chemotherapy could be considered reliable for clinical stage III NSCLC, but needs to be validated with more robust clinical trials.
Project description:BackgroundOur study was designed to determine the safety, efficacy, and immunological effects of perioperative pembrolizumab in early-stage NSCLC.MethodsThis is a single-arm phase II study of perioperative pembrolizumab in patients with untreated, clinical stage IB to IIIA NSCLC. Patients received two doses of 200 mg pembrolizumab, surgery, standard adjuvant chemotherapy, followed by four doses adjuvant pembrolizumab. The primary objective of this study was to determine surgical feasibility rate, and secondary objectives are pathological response rate, treatment adverse events, efficacy data, and exploratory analysis of biomarkers.Results30 patients initiated perioperative pembrolizumab, and 25 completed tumor resection. At median follow-up of 59 months after surgical resection, seven patients had disease progression, while six had died representing. A 5-year progression-free survival (PFS) from time of surgery was 72.0% (56.4%-91.9%) and overall survival (OS) from time of surgery was 75.8% (60.7%-94.7%). Major pathological response (MPR) was found in seven tumors (28%) including two complete responses (4%). Across all treated patients, four receiving neoadjuvant and four receiving adjuvant pembrolizumab experienced treatment-related adverse events of grade 3 or higher with no grade 5 events. Plasma proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin type 9 (PCSK9) levels increased across our patient cohort over time from baseline until postsurgery and remained elevated at the end of treatment. There was a significant difference between mean plasma PCSK9 levels for patients with MPR versus all other patients on study when checked postoperatively.ConclusionsPerioperative pembrolizumab was safe and effective with promising MPR rate, PFS, and OS.
Project description:Pembrolizumab, a widely used immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI), has revolutionized the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Identifying unique tumor characteristics in patients likely to respond to pembrolizumab could help the clinical adjudication and development of a personalized therapeutic strategy. In this retrospective study, we reviewed the clinical data and pathological features of 84 NSCLC patients treated with pembrolizumab. We examined the correlation between the clinical and demographic characteristics and the tumor histopathologic features obtained before immunotherapy. The response to pembrolizumab therapy was evaluated via the Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors (RECIST). The clinical data and cancer tissue characteristics were assessed and compared among three groups according to the following RECIST: the responsive group (RG), the stable disease group (SD), and the progressive disease group (PD), where the RG comprised patients with either a complete response (CR) or a partial response (PR). The overall survival rate of the RG group was significantly higher than the SD and PD groups. In addition, the percentage of pre-treatment viable tumor cell content in the RG and SD groups was significantly higher. At the same time, the extracellular stroma proportion was significantly lower than that of the PD group. The number of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) in the RG group was significantly higher than in the PD group. There were no significant differences in tumor necrosis, the stroma composition, PD-L1 expression level (TPS 1-49% vs. ≥50%), and treatment response. In conclusion, our population of NSCLC patients who experienced positive treatment responses to pembrolizumab therapy had a better prognosis compared to patients with either SD or PD. Moreover, the relative proportions of viable tumor cells to tumor-associated lymphocytes were associated with responsiveness to treatment. It is expected that larger prospective clinical studies will further validate these findings.
Project description:BackgroundAlthough PD-1 antibodies (PD1 Ab) are the standard of care for advanced non-small-cell lung cancer (ansclc), most patients will progress. We compared survival outcomes for patients with ansclc who received systemic therapy (st) after progression and for those who did not. Additionally, clinical characteristics that predicted receipt of st after PD1 Ab failure were evaluated.MethodsAll patients with ansclc in British Columbia initiated on nivolumab or pembrolizumab between June 2015 and November 2017, with subsequent progression, were identified. Eligibility criteria for additional st included an Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ecog) performance status (ps) of 3 or less and survival for more than 30 days from the last PD1 Ab treatment. Post-progression survival (pps) was assessed by landmark analysis. Baseline characteristics associated with pps were identified by multivariable analysis.ResultsOf 94 patients meeting the eligibility criteria, 33 received st after progression. In 75.6%, a PD1 Ab was received as first- or second-line treatment. The most common sts were erlotinib (36.4%) and docetaxel (27.3%). No statistically significant difference in median pps was observed between patients who did and did not receive st within 30 days of their last PD1 Ab treatment (6.9 months vs. 3.6 months, log-rank p = 0.15.) In multivariable analysis, factors associated with increased pps included an ecog ps of 0 or 1 compared with 2 or 3 [hazard ratio (hr): 0.42; 95% confidence interval (ci): 0.24 to 0.73; p = 0.002] and any response compared with no response to PD1 Ab (hr: 0.54; 95% ci: 0.33 to 0.90; p = 0.02).ConclusionsIn this cohort, only 35.1% of patients eligible for post-PD1 Ab therapy received st. Post-progression survival was not significantly affected by receipt of post-progression therapy. Prospective trials are needed to clarify the benefit of post-PD1 Ab treatments.
Project description:ImportanceAdjuvant and neoadjuvant immunotherapy have improved clinical outcomes for patients with early-stage non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). However, the optimal combination of checkpoint inhibition with chemotherapy remains unknown.ObjectiveTo determine whether toripalimab in combination with platinum-based chemotherapy will improve event-free survival and major pathological response in patients with stage II or III resectable NSCLC compared with chemotherapy alone.Design, setting, and participantsThis randomized clinical trial enrolled patients with stage II or III resectable NSCLC (without EGFR or ALK alterations for nonsquamous NSCLC) from March 12, 2020, to June 19, 2023, at 50 participating hospitals in China. The data cutoff date for this interim analysis was November 30, 2022.InterventionsPatients were randomized in a 1:1 ratio to receive 240 mg of toripalimab or placebo once every 3 weeks combined with platinum-based chemotherapy for 3 cycles before surgery and 1 cycle after surgery, followed by toripalimab only (240 mg) or placebo once every 3 weeks for up to 13 cycles.Main outcomes and measuresThe primary outcomes were event-free survival (assessed by the investigators) and the major pathological response rate (assessed by blinded, independent pathological review). The secondary outcomes included the pathological complete response rate (assessed by blinded, independent pathological review) and adverse events.ResultsOf the 501 patients randomized, 404 had stage III NSCLC (202 in the toripalimab + chemotherapy group and 202 in the placebo + chemotherapy group) and 97 had stage II NSCLC and were excluded from this interim analysis. The median age was 62 years (IQR, 56-65 years), 92% of patients were male, and the median follow-up was 18.3 months (IQR, 12.7-22.5 months). For the primary outcome of event-free survival, the median length was not estimable (95% CI, 24.4 months-not estimable) in the toripalimab group compared with 15.1 months (95% CI, 10.6-21.9 months) in the placebo group (hazard ratio, 0.40 [95% CI, 0.28-0.57], P < .001). The major pathological response rate (another primary outcome) was 48.5% (95% CI, 41.4%-55.6%) in the toripalimab group compared with 8.4% (95% CI, 5.0%-13.1%) in the placebo group (between-group difference, 40.2% [95% CI, 32.2%-48.1%], P < .001). The pathological complete response rate (secondary outcome) was 24.8% (95% CI, 19.0%-31.3%) in the toripalimab group compared with 1.0% (95% CI, 0.1%-3.5%) in the placebo group (between-group difference, 23.7% [95% CI, 17.6%-29.8%]). The incidence of immune-related adverse events occurred more frequently in the toripalimab group. No unexpected treatment-related toxic effects were identified. The incidence of grade 3 or higher adverse events, fatal adverse events, and adverse events leading to discontinuation of treatment were comparable between the groups.Conclusions and relevanceThe addition of toripalimab to perioperative chemotherapy led to a significant improvement in event-free survival for patients with resectable stage III NSCLC and this treatment strategy had a manageable safety profile.Trial registrationClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT04158440.
Project description:The emergence of immune checkpoint inhibitors marked an important advancement in the development of cancer therapeutics. Pembrolizumab is a selective humanized IgG4 kappa monoclonal antibody that inhibits the programmed death-1 (PD-1) receptor, an integral component of immune checkpoint regulation in the tumor microenvironment. The drug is currently approved by the Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of advanced melanoma and metastatic squamous and nonsquamous non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Several published studies demonstrate that single-agent pembrolizumab is safe and has efficacy in patients with NSCLC. Many ongoing protocols are investigating the role of pembrolizumab in combination with other agents in lung cancer and various other cancer types. We review the available data on pembrolizumab in NSCLC and examine the role of potential predictive biomarkers of response to therapy.
Project description:Activating mutations in KRAS are highly prevalent in solid tumours and are frequently found in 35% of lung, 45% of colorectal, and up to 90% of pancreatic cancers. Mutated KRAS is a prognostic factor for disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) in NSCLC and is associated with a more aggressive clinical phenotype, highlighting the need for KRAS-targeted therapy. Once considered undruggable due to its smooth shallow surface, a breakthrough showed that the activated G12C-mutated KRAS isozyme can be directly inhibited via a newly identified switch II pocket. This discovery led to the development of a new class of selective small-molecule inhibitors against the KRAS G12C isoform. Sotorasib and adagrasib are approved in locally advanced or metastatic NSCLC patients who have received at least one prior systemic therapy. Currently, there are at least twelve KRAS G12C inhibitors being tested in clinical trials, either as a single agent or in combination. In this study, KRAS mutation prevalence, subtypes, rates of occurrence in treatment-resistant invasive mucinous adenocarcinomas (IMAs), and novel drug delivery options are reviewed. Additionally, the current status of KRAS inhibitors, multiple resistance mechanisms that limit efficacy, and their use in combination treatment strategies and novel multitargeted approaches in NSCLC are discussed.