ESMO 2017 | Can immunotherapy improve survival in relapsed NSCLC patients?

Sanjay Popat, BSc, MBBS, FRCP, PhD, from the Royal Marsden Hospital, London, UK, discusses the CheckMate 171 study (NCT02409368) at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) 2017 in Madrid, Spain. This investigated the role of immunotherapy in relapsed squamous subtype non-small cell lung cancer. All patients recruited had to have failed doublet platinum chemotherapy. There was not a significant difference in toxicity in performance status 2 (PS2) and elderly patients, however, there was a lower survival rate in PS2 patients. This was expected, as PS2 is typically associated with a poor prognosis. The next step is to gain more confidence in using these agents.