Cemiplimab plus chemotherapy results in significant overall improve- ment in pain symptoms and delayed deterioration
in cancer-related and lung cancer-specific symptoms and functions, according to a study
published in Cancer. Tamta Makharadze, MD, and colleagues evaluated patient-reported outcomes from
the EMPOWER-Lung 3 phase 3 trial. The analysis included 312 patients assigned to cemiplimab plus
platinum-doublet chemotherapy and 154 receiving placebo plus chemotherapy as first-line treatment
for advanced NSCLC. For pain symptoms, there was a statistically significant overall improvement
from baseline and significant delay in time to definitive clinically meaningful deterioration (TTD;
HR, 0.39; 95% CI, 0.26-0.60; P<0.0001) favoring
cemiplimab plus chemotherapy. For functioning and symptom scales, there were also statistically
significant delays seen in TTD, all favoring cemiplimab plus chemotherapy. From baseline,
there was a significant overall improvement observed in global health status/QOL with cemiplimab
plus chemotherapy versus a nonsignificant overall change from baseline for placebo plus
chemotherapy (HR [95% CIs], 1.69 [0.20-3.19] vs 1.08 [−1.34 to 3.51];
between arms, P=0.673).
