Tarlatamab plus durvalumab improves survival in extensive-stage small cell lung cancer

Prof Jacob Sands speaks to ecancer about the primary analysis of the phase III DeLLphi-305 trial, which evaluated tarlatamab plus durvalumab versus durvalumab alone as first-line maintenance therapy in patients with extensive-stage small cell lung cancer (ES-SCLC) whose disease had not progressed following initial treatment with durvalumab, platinum-based chemotherapy and etoposide.

Among 563 patients, adding tarlatamab to durvalumab significantly improved overall survival, with median overall survival increasing from 12.7 to 21.1 months.

Prof Sands says the combination also significantly improved progression-free survival, extending median progression-free survival from 1.9 to 7.4 months, and increased the objective response rate from 4.1% to 26.4%.

Grade 3 or higher treatment-emergent adverse events occurred in 46.8% of patients receiving the combination and 40.6% receiving durvalumab alone.

Cytokine release syndrome occurred in 49.6% of patients treated with tarlatamab plus durvalumab, while immune effector cell-associated neurotoxicity syndrome occurred in 1.1%; these events were primarily low grade, with no fatal events reported.

Dr Sands speculates that these findings could establish tarlatamab plus durvalumab as a new standard of care for first-line maintenance treatment of ES-SCLC.