Effect of durvalumab on local control after concurrent chemoradiotherapy for locally advanced non-small cell lung cancer in comparison with chemoradiotherapy alone

Background: Durvalumab after concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CCRT) for locally advanced non-small cell lung cancer (LA-NSCLC) has been found to significantly improve overall survival (OS). However, the effect of durvalumab on local control remains unclear. Here, we evaluated the effect of the durvalumab on local control in comparison with the clinical result of patients treated with CCRT alone.

Methods: A total of 120 LA-NSCLC patients including 76 patients with CCRT alone and 44 patients with CCRT followed by durvalumab were analyzed. Baseline patient characteristics of CCRT alone cohort and durvalumab cohort were compared with student's t test or Mann-Whitney U test for continuous variables and with chi-squared test for categorical variables. Local control (LC), progression free survival (PFS) and OS rates were estimated using the Kaplan-Meier method and compared with the log-rank test.

Results: There were 19 patients with stage II disease and 101 patients with stage III disease. Age, sex, histopathological type, T classification, N classification, clinical stage, tumor volume and dose fractionation schedule were not significantly different between the CCRT alone and durvalumab cohorts. The one-year LC rate was significantly higher in the durvalumab cohort (86%) compared with the CCRT alone cohort (62%) (P = 0.005), whereas no significant difference was observed in either PFS (P = 0.864) or OS (P = 0.443) between the CCRT and durvalumab cohorts.

Conclusions: The one-year LC rate was significantly higher in the durvalumab cohort compared with the CCRT alone cohort. Although the follow-up period was too short to draw definitive conclusions, the study revealed that durvalumab might have a significant effect on LC.

Key points: SIGNIFICANT FINDINGS OF THE STUDY: Effect of durvalumab on local control after chemoradiotherapy for locally advanced non-small cell lung cancer is unclear WHAT THIS STUDY ADDS: The one-year local control rate of chemoradiotherapy followed by durvalumab was significantly higher compared with chemoradiotherapy alone.