Dr. Simon on the Impact of Immunotherapy Agents in NSCLC

George R. Simon, MD, FACP, FCCP, professor of medicine, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, discusses how the introduction of immunotherapy in the treatment of patients with locally advanced, stage III non—small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) has affected prognosis.

More recently, there have been reports that after patients complete concurrent chemoradiation regimens for locally advanced NSCLC, giving durvalumab (Imfinzi) for maintenance therapy for about 1 year improved progression-free survival (PFS). The overall survival data are still pending. The improvement in PFS is significantly higher than the administration of chemoradiation alone.

There are other studies that are investigating the use of immunotherapy in these patients such as the use of atezolizumab (Tecentriq). This is the first significant advance in stage III disease that physicians have seen in a while where an intervention has improved survival over concurrent chemoradiation alone.