Dr. Lai on the Results of the CASPIAN Trial in Small Cell Lung Cancer

W. Victoria Lai, MD, a medical oncologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer, discusses the results of the phase III CASPIAN trial in small cell lung cancer (SCLC).

CASPIAN is a global, randomized phase III open-label study in which patients with newly diagnosed, extensive-stage SCLC were randomized to 1 of 3 arms: standard-of-care chemotherapy platinum and etoposide, platinum/etoposide plus the PD-L1 antibody durvalumab (Imfinzi) followed by maintenance durvalumab, or chemotherapy plus durvalumab, and the CTLA-4 inhibitor tremelimumab.

The addition of durvalumab to standard chemotherapy showed an improvement in median overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS). However, the initial analysis was not powered for a formal PFS comparison, says Lai. The median OS was 10.3 months with chemotherapy versus 13.0 months with the addition of durvalumab. These data suggest that the combination approach is the right one, she adds. Although this is a good starting point, investigators would like to see a prolonged improvement in OS. As such, the data from the third arm are eagerly anticipated, concludes Lai.