Combination of chemoradiation therapy with immunotherapy in the treatment of patients with inoperable stage III non-small cell lung cancer

For more than 10 years, there have been no significant improvements in treatment outcomes for patients with inoperable locally advanced non-small cell lung cancer. At the moment, the standard of treatment for this category of patients is concurrent chemoradiation therapy. At the same time, the 5-year overall survival rate varies in the range of 15–25%. This indicator contributes to the modernization of existing approaches, as well as the search for new ways in the treatment of patients with inoperable stage III non-small cell lung cancer.

One of the promising areas is the combination of chemoradiation therapy with immunotherapy. Thus, the use of Imfinzi (durvalumab, AstraZeneca) as a consolidation therapy in the Phase III clinical trial PACIFIC demonstrated a reduction in the risk of death by about one third in comparison with the standard approach.

We present a clinical case study of a patient with locally advanced non-small cell lung cancer who received treatment in the framework of concurrent chemoradiation therapy followed by immunotherapy with durvalumab, continuing until now. The result of the therapy is the complete response to the specific treatment, recorded according to PET-CT.

Thus, the use of immunotherapy as consolidation therapy represents a promising strategy for improving outcomes after concurrent chemoradiation therapy in patients with inoperable stage III non-small cell lung cancer

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