The FDA recently approved an immunotherapy treatment, durvalumab, against programmed death ligand 1 (PD-L1) for locally advanced (unresectable) non-small cell lung cancer after treatment with chemotherapy and radiation. The PACIFIC trial was recently published that looked at durvalumab as a consolidation therapy in patients with stage III NSCLC who did not have disease progression after two or more cycles of platinum-based chemoradiotherapy. These patients were randomized to received one year of durvalumab (IV treatment every 2 weeks) or a placebo. Treatment with durvalumab led to a significant improvement in progression free survival rates (median progression free survival of 16.8 months vs 5.6 months for placebo). It was relatively well tolerated with most issues being pneumonia or pneumonitis. I think the marked improvement in patient outcomes will lead this to be used often after chemoradiation in those patients that are doing well post-radiation treatment.
