IASLC 2020 World Conference on Lung Cancer

Our plain-English summary of IASLC 2020 World Conference on Lung Cancer, by P. Venkatesan (The Lancet. Respiratory Medicine, 2020).

The study

• Author: P. Venkatesan
• Journal: The Lancet. Respiratory Medicine
• Published: 2020;8(10):e76
• Type of article: News
• Cited by: 2 articles, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher

In plain English

This is a short news report, not a research paper. It summarised three trials presented at the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer 2020 World Conference on Lung Cancer on 8 August 2020. Two items concerned drugs for non-small-cell lung cancer. The third described CheckMate 743, a phase 3, randomised, open-label trial led by Paul Baas in patients with unresectable malignant pleural mesothelioma and no previous systemic therapy. 303 patients were assigned nivolumab plus ipilimumab for up to 2 years, and 302 patients were assigned cisplatin or carboplatin plus pemetrexed for six cycles. After a median follow-up of 29.7 months, a prespecified interim analysis showed median overall survival of 18.1 months (95% confidence interval 16.8 to 21.4) in the nivolumab plus ipilimumab group and 14.1 months (12.4 to 16.2) in the chemotherapy group; the hazard ratio was 0.74 (96.6% confidence interval 0.60 to 0.91; p=0.0020). Baas was quoted as saying the combination was superior to standard chemotherapy and could be the first-line treatment of choice. The report did not mention asbestos or give side effects or limitations for this trial.

We wrote this plain-English summary from the full article with the help of AI, and a second AI model checked each sentence against the article. It is not the authors' wording; the abstract and the article are their own account.

What the study did and found

• Design: News report summarising conference presentations; the mesothelioma item describes a phase 3, randomised, open-label trial (CheckMate 743) comparing two treatments
• Who was studied: Patients with unresectable malignant pleural mesothelioma and no previous systemic therapy: 303 in the nivolumab plus ipilimumab group and 302 in the chemotherapy group. The report gives no country or enrolment dates and calls the study only 'global'.
• Exposure: No asbestos exposure was studied. The trial compared treatments: nivolumab 3 mg/kg every 2 weeks plus ipilimumab 1 mg/kg every 6 weeks for up to 2 years, versus cisplatin or carboplatin plus pemetrexed every 3 weeks for six cycles.
• Main results:
  • After a median follow-up of 29.7 months, a prespecified interim analysis showed median overall survival of 18.1 months (95% CI 16.8 to 21.4) in the nivolumab plus ipilimumab group versus 14.1 months (95% CI 12.4 to 16.2) in the chemotherapy group; hazard ratio 0.74 (96.6% CI 0.60 to 0.91), p=0.0020.
• The authors' conclusion: The presenting investigator, Paul Baas, was quoted as saying the trial showed the nivolumab plus ipilimumab combination to be superior to standard chemotherapy for malignant pleural mesothelioma, and that combination immunotherapy can be the first choice of treatment in the first-line setting.

Topics

The National Library of Medicine indexes this study under subjects our site covers: Lung cancer, Mesothelioma.

Medical terms in this study, explained in our Lexicon: IASLC, Lung Cancer.

Related studies

• Imaging in pleural mesothelioma: A review of the 13th International Conference of the International Mesothelioma Interest Group — S.G. Armato, K.G. Blyth, et al. (2016)
• Molecular pathways and diagnosis in malignant mesothelioma: A review of the 14th International Conference of the International Mesothelioma Interest Group — D.B. Chapel, A. Churg, et al. (2019)
• Imaging in pleural mesothelioma: A review of the 14th International Conference of the International Mesothelioma Interest Group — S.G. Armato, R.J. Francis, et al. (2019)
• Progress of malignant mesothelioma research in basic science: A review of the 14th international conference of the international mesothelioma interest group (iMig2018) — L. Wu, I. Dell'Anno, et al. (2019)
• The role of radiation treatment in pleural mesothelioma: Highlights of the 14th International Conference of the International mesothelioma interest group — R.M. MacRae, M. Ashton, et al. (2019)
• Prospective real-world study on the pharmacokinetics of pembrolizumab in patients with solid tumors — D.P. Hurkmans, S.D.T. Sassen, et al. (2021)

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