Abstract
Concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CRT) followed by maintenance treatment with the PD-L1 inhibitor durvalumab is a new standard of care for inoperable stage III NSCLC. The present study compares the oncological outcome of patients treated with CRT to those treated with CRT and durvalumab (CRT-IO) in the real-world setting. The analysis was performed based on the retro- and prospectively collected data of 144 consecutive inoperable stage III NSCLC patients treated between 2011-2020. Local-regional-progression-free-survival (LRPFS-defined as progression in the mediastinum, hilum and/or supraclavicular region at both sites and the involved lung), progression-free survival (PFS), and overall survival (OS) were evaluated from the last day of thoracic radiotherapy (TRT). Median follow-up for the entire cohort was 33.1 months (range: 6.3-111.8) and median overall survival was 27.2 (95% CI: 19.5-34.9) months. In the CRT-IO cohort after a median follow-up of 20.9 (range: 6.3-27.4) months, median PFS was not reached, LRPFS (p = 0.002), PFS (p = 0.018), and OS (p = 0.005) were significantly improved vs. the historical cohort of conventional CRT patients. After propensity-score matching (PSM) analysis with age, gender, histology, tumor volume, and treatment mode, and exact matching for T-and N-stage, 22 CRT-IO patients were matched 1:2 to 44 CRT patients. Twelve-month LRPFS, PFS, and OS rates in the CRT-IO vs. CRT cohort were 78.9 vs. 45.5% (p = 0.002), 60.0 vs. 31.8% (p = 0.007), and 100 vs. 70.5% (p = 0.003), respectively. This real-world analysis demonstrated that durvalumab after CRT led to significant improvement of local-regional control, PFS, and OS in PD-L1 expressing inoperable stage III NSCLC patients compared to a historical cohort.