Dr. Vokes Discusses Patient Characteristics and Immunotherapy in NSCLC

Everett Vokes, MD, John E. Ultmann Professor of Medicine and Radiation Oncology, physician-in-chief, chair, Department of Medicine, University of Chicago Medicine, discusses patient characteristics when considering immunotherapy in stage III non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

Up until this past year, the typical standard approach to treating patients with stage III NSCLC was a combination of chemotherapy and radiotherapy. In February 2018, the FDA has approved durvalumab (Imfinzi) for the treatment of patients with locally advanced, unresectable stage III NSCLC who have not progressed following chemoradiotherapy.

Characteristics that might deter a physician from choosing immunotherapy in a patient with stage III NSCLC is autoimmune disease, Vokes says. Other subsets of patients such as those with poor performance status might also need to be evaluated before treatment with an immunotherapy agent such as durvalumab. Although, Vokes says that if a less fit patient is successful after chemoradiotherapy, then additional treatment should be considered.