Dr. Jotte on the IMpower131 Findings in Squamous NSCLC

Robert M. Jotte, MD, PhD, medical director and co-chair, USON Thoracic Committee, Rocky Mountain Cancer Centers, discusses the phase III findings of the IMpower131 trial, which looked at the addition of atezolizumab (Tecentriq) to frontline carboplatin and nab-paclitaxel (Abraxane) in patients with advanced squamous non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Jotte discussed these findings in an interview with OncLive during the 2018 ASCO Annual Meeting.

IMpower131 was a 1000-patient study in treatment-naive patients with squamous NSCLC and, regardless of their level of PD-L1 expression, were randomized to receive carboplatin and paclitaxel plus atezolizumab (arm A), carboplatin and nab-paclitaxel plus atexolixumab (arm B) and carboplatin and paclitaxel (arm C), explains Jotte.

The primary endpoints of the study were investigator-assessed progression-free survival and overall survival. Data showed that arms B and C, which were able to analyzed at this time, demonstrated that a doubling in PFS from 12% in the control arm to 24.7% in the atezolizumab-containing arm, and the response rates increased in the PD-L1—high category from 33% to 60%, and the duration of response was also improved, concludes Jotte.

<<< 2018 ASCO Annual Meeting