Patients with extensive-stage small cell lung cancer who received a combination of two immunotherapies as first-line maintenance therapy had a median overall survival more than eight months longer than those who received one immunotherapy alone, according to a study published Oct. 24 in The New England Journal of Medicine.
Researchers analyzed 563 patients in a phase 3 trial to evaluate whether adding tarlatamab to durvalumab maintenance therapy could improve survival. All patients had completed standard first-line treatment with durvalumab and chemotherapy without disease progression before they were randomly assigned to receive the combination or durvalumab alone.
Jacob Sands, MD, associate chief of the Lowe Center for Thoracic Oncology at Boston-based Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, presented the results Oct. 24 at the European Society for Medical Oncology Congress 2026 in Madrid, according to a news release from the cancer institute.
Here are five notes from the study:
- Nearly 80% of patients in the combination group were alive at one year, compared with 53% in the durvalumab-only group.
- Median overall survival reached 21.1 months with the combination, which lowered the risk of death by 58%. Median survival with standard first-line treatment has historically ranged from 12 to 13 months, according to the release.
- The combination lowered the risk of disease progression or death by 66%, with a median progression-free survival of 7.4 months in the combination group and 1.9 months in the durvalumab-only group.
- The survival benefit held across patient subgroups, including those whose cancer had spread to the brain or liver.
- Cytokine release syndrome affected 49.6% of patients on the combination. Most cases were grade 1 or 2 and were managed with supportive care. Other side effects included low neutrophil counts, decreased appetite, fatigue and weight loss.
Read the full study here.
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