Dr. Wakelee on BIRCH Trial for Atezolizumab in Patients With NSCLC

Heather A. Wakelee, MD, associate professor of Medicine (Oncology), Stanford University Medical Center, regent, International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC) discusses updated efficacy findings from the BIRCH trial, which was a phase II study of atezolizumab (Tecentriq) for patients with PD-L1—selected advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Wakelee discussed these findings during an interview at the 2016 IASLC Multidisciplinary Symposium on Thoracic Oncology.

The updated results of the BIRCH study demonstrate a median overall survival of 12 months. In the first-line cohort all comers with an immunohistochemistry score of TC1/2/3 had a median survival of over 20 months. In patients who had higher PD-L1 expression, the median survival has not yet been reached, Wakelee explains.

Additional studies are exploring atezolizumab in other settings and in combination. The IMpower-110 trial is a randomized study in selected patients looking at atezolizumab compared with chemotherapy in the first-line setting, she says. The OAK study is a randomized phase III trial comparing atezolizumab with docetaxel in unselected patients in the second-line setting.