Dr. Moghanaki on the Impact of the PACIFIC Trial on NSCLC Treatment

Drew Moghanaki, MD, MPH, associate professor, Department of Radiation Oncology, Emory School of Medicine, Winship Cancer Institute, section chief, Department of Radiation Oncology, Atlanta VA Medical Center, discusses the impact of the PACIFIC trial on stage III lung cancer treatment.

When the PACIFIC trial was first reported in 2017, there was cautious optimism even though it was a randomized, double-blind study, explains Moghanaki. Even with a progression-free survival gain, Moghanaki says people were still skeptical about the overall survival curves separating because of prior negative trials. Moghanaki describes the PACIFIC study’s publication in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2018 an “ecstatic moment” to see the needle move so much.

The PACIFIC trial is significant because the control arm continues to do better than the historical control. Therefore, researchers know staging and more precise radiation delivery that’s less toxic than before is being developed. Moghanaki believes these data have generated more hope in the oncology community for this patient population. Now, if a patient is diagnosed with stage III disease, there are more treatment options than there were previously.