WCLC 2016 | Tremelimumab and durvalumab therapy in lung cancer

Rosalyn Juergens, MD, PhD of McMaster University, Juravinski Cancer Centre, Canada gives an overview of her presentation of the data from the Canadian Clinical Trials Group Investigational New Drug Committee (IND), trial IND.226 (NCT02537418). This looked at quadruple therapy in lung cancer, which was chemotherapy plus two different forms of immunotherapy, CTLA-4 inhibitor (tremelimumab) and PD-L1 inhibitor (durvalumab). This was a Phase I, dose escalation study looking at safety and tolerability. Combinations of immuno-oncology drugs have been a challenge in the past, so seeing whether patients can sustain the treatment before moving onto quadruple therapy was important. It was found that patients could sustain it, with incremental increases in the manageable side effects to patients. There was an increase in fatigue, a slight increase in diarrhea, as well as pneumonitis, hypothyroidism and hyperthyroidism. Efficacy in terms of response rate was double what would be expected with just chemotherapy alone. It is slightly higher than what has been seen with chemotherapy plus a PD-1 or PD-L1 inhibitor. However, they are awaiting further results and hoping for increased durability. Recorded at the 2016 World Conference of Lung Cancer (WCLC) of the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC) in Vienna, Austria.