Durvalumab in Combination With Olaparib Versus Durvalumab Alone as Maintenance Therapy in Metastatic NSCLC: The Phase 2 ORION Study.

INTRODUCTION: Increased DNA damage triggered through poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase inhibition may modify tumor immunogenicity, sensitizing tumors to immunotherapy. ORION (NCT03775486) evaluated the combination of olaparib with durvalumab as maintenance therapy in patients with metastatic NSCLC. METHODS: ORION is a phase 2, randomized, multicenter, double-blind, international study. Patients with metastatic NSCLC (without activating EGFR or ALK aberrations) and Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status of 0 or 1 were enrolled to receive initial therapy with durvalumab (1500 mg intravenously; every 3 wk) plus platinum-based chemotherapy for four cycles. Patients without disease progression were then randomized (1:1) to maintenance durvalumab (1500 mg; every 4 wk) plus either olaparib (300 mg orally) or placebo (both twice daily); randomization was stratified by objective response during initial therapy and tumor histologic type. The primary end point was investigator-assessed progression-free survival (PFS) (Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors version 1.1). RESULTS: Between January 2019 and February 2020, 269 of 401 patients who received initial therapy were randomized. As of January 11, 2021 (median follow-up: 9.6 mo), median PFS was 7.2 months (95% confidence interval: 5.3-7.9) with durvalumab plus olaparib versus 5.3 months (3.7-5.8) with durvalumab plus placebo (hazard ratio = 0.76, 95% confidence interval: 0.57-1.02, p = 0.074). Safety findings were consistent with the known profiles of durvalumab and olaparib. Anemia was the most common adverse event (AE) with durvalumab plus olaparib (26.1% versus 8.2% with durvalumab plus placebo). The incidence of grade 3 or 4 AEs (34.3% versus 17.9%) and AEs leading to treatment discontinuation (10.4% versus 4.5%) was numerically higher with durvalumab plus olaparib versus durvalumab plus placebo. CONCLUSIONS: Maintenance therapy with durvalumab in combination with olaparib was not associated with a statistically significant improvement in PFS versus durvalumab alone, although numerical improvement was observed.

Impact of detecting plasma EGFR mutations with ultrasensitive liquid biopsy in outcomes of NSCLC patients treated with first- or second-generation EGFR-TKIs.

BACKGROUND: Few trials have evaluated the utility of liquid biopsies to detect epidermal growth factor receptor mutations (EGFRm) at the time of response evaluation and its association with the clinical characteristics and outcomes of non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to evaluate, in a real-world clinical setting, the prevalence of plasma EGFRm and its association with the clinical characteristics, response and survival outcomes of NSCLC patients under treatment with EGFR-tyrosine kinase inhibitors (EGFR-TKIs). METHODS: This observational study enrolled advanced or metastatic NSCLC patients, with confirmed tumor EGFRm, receiving treatment with first- or second-generation EGFR-TKIs. Blood samples for the detection of plasma EGFRm were collected at the time of response evaluation and processed using the Target Selector™ assay. The main outcomes were the detection rate of plasma EGFRm, median Progression-Free Survival (PFS) and Overall Survival (OS) according to plasma EGFR mutational status. RESULTS: Of 84 patients, 50 (59.5%) had an EGFRm detected in plasma. After a median follow-up of 21.1 months, 63 patients (75%) had disease progression. The detection rate of plasma EGFRm was significantly higher in patients with disease progression than in patients with partial response or stable disease (68.3% versus 33.3%; P< 0.01). PFS and OS were significantly longer in patients without plasma EGFRm than among patients with plasma EGFRm (14.3 months [95% CI, 9.25-19.39] vs 11.0 months [95% CI, 8.61-13.46]; P= 0.034) and (67.8 months [95% CI, 39.80-95.94] vs 32.0 months [95% CI, 17.12-46.93]; P= 0.006), respectively. A positive finding in LB was associated with the presence of ⩾ 3 more metastatic sites (P= 0.028), elevated serum carcinoembryonic (CEA) at disease progression (P= 0.015), and an increase in CEA with respect to baseline levels (P= 0.038). CONCLUSIONS: In NSCLC patients receiving EGFR-TKIs, the detection of plasma EGFRm at the time of tumor response evaluation is associated with poor clinical outcomes.