Enhancing Benefit With Durvalumab in NSCLC After the PACIFIC Trial

Andreas Rimner, MD, radiation oncologist, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, gives an overview of his presentation titled, “Crossing the PACIFIC,” which he presented at the 2019 New York Lung Cancers Symposium. He evaluates some potential next steps for durvalumab (Imfinzi) following the practice-changing results from the PACIFIC trial.

The PACIFIC trial evaluated durvalumab following concurrent chemoradiation in patients with stage III unresectable non—small cell lung cancer. Due to the magnitude of benefit observed in this study, the standard of care for this patient population was changed.

There is now a question of how to move forward in prolonging progression-free survival and overall survival after the PACIFIC trial. Rimner says several ideas include giving durvalumab even earlier, combining durvalumab with other drugs to enhance the effects, and giving durvalumab to patients who are not fit for the classic PACIFIC regimen. There is also a question of whether durvalumab can be given to surgical candidates.