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First-line cemiplimab (anti-programmed cell death-1 (PD-1)) monotherapy has previously shown significant improvement in overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) versus chemotherapy in patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (aNSCLC) and PD-ligand 1 (PD-L1) expression ≥50%. EMPOWER-Lung 3 (NCT03409614), a double-blind, placebo-controlled, phase 3 study, examined cemiplimab plus platinum-doublet chemotherapy as first-line treatment for aNSCLC, irrespective of PD-L1 expression or histology. In this study, 466 patients with stage III/IV aNSCLC without EGFR, ALK or ROS1 genomic tumor aberrations were randomized (2:1) to receive cemiplimab 350 mg (n = 312) or placebo (n = 154) every 3 weeks for up to 108 weeks in combination with four cycles of platinum-doublet chemotherapy (followed by pemetrexed maintenance as indicated). In total, 57.1% (266/466 patients) had non-squamous NSCLC, and 85.2% (397/466 patients) had stage IV disease. The primary endpoint was OS. The trial was stopped early per recommendation of the independent data monitoring committee, based on meeting preset OS efficacy criteria: median OS was 21.9 months (95% confidence interval (CI), 15.5–not evaluable) with cemiplimab plus chemotherapy versus 13.0 months (95% CI, 11.9–16.1) with placebo plus chemotherapy (hazard ratio (HR) = 0.71; 95% CI, 0.53–0.93; P = 0.014). Grade ≥3 adverse events occurred with cemiplimab plus chemotherapy (43.6%, 136/312 patients) and placebo plus chemotherapy (31.4%, 48/153 patients). Cemiplimab is only the second anti-PD-1/PD-L1 agent to show efficacy in aNSCLC as both monotherapy and in combination with chemotherapy for both squamous and non-squamous histologies.

Conclusions: Pembro continues to show improvements in OS vs chemo as 1L treatment for metastatic NSCLC with PD-L1 TPS !50%. Despite the high crossover rate, 5year OS was approximately doubled among pts who received pembro (31.9% vs 16.3%). Fewer pts who received pembro experienced grade 3À5 AEs vs those who received chemo. Long-term OS and durable responses were observed with pembro monotherapy.Clinical trial identification: NCT02142738.

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9085 Background: In the Phase 3, EMPOWER-Lung 1 study, cemiplimab monotherapy provided significant survival benefit and an acceptable safety profile vs chemotherapy in patients with advanced NSCLC and PD-L1 ≥50%. EMPOWER-Lung 1 included patients with brain metastases at baseline who are typically underrepresented in clinical trials. Other published exploratory analyses in single-cohort studies suggest benefit from immunotherapy in this patient population. Here, we present subgroup analysis of patients with brain metastasis from EMPOWER-Lung 1. Methods: Patients were randomized 1:1 to cemiplimab 350 mg IV every 3 weeks or investigator’s choice of chemotherapy (NCT03088540). Patients with treated, clinically stable brain metastases (radiological stability not required) were eligible to enroll and are the focus of this subgroup analysis from the PD-L1 ≥50% population (n=563) of the EMPOWER-Lung 1 study. Results: A total of 68 of 563 (12.1%) cases had treated stable brain metastases at time of randomization. Patients were evenly distributed between cemiplimab (n=34) and chemotherapy (n=34), with similar median duration of follow-up (Table). Baseline characteristics were generally similar; median (range) age: 60.0 (45–76 ) vs 62.0 (48–77); male: 97.1% vs 85.3%; and non-squamous histology: 85.3% vs 76.5%; between cemiplimab vs chemotherapy, respectively. Per independent review committee, median overall survival (OS, 18.7 vs 11.7 months), median progression-free survival (PFS, 10.4 vs 5.3 months), and objective response rate (ORR, 41.2% vs 8.8%) were superior with cemiplimab vs chemotherapy (Table). After baseline, central nervous system (CNS) disease progression occurred in 2 (5.9%) patients with cemiplimab vs 4 (11.8%) patients with chemotherapy; extra-CNS disease progression occurred in 9 (26.5%) patients with cemiplimab vs 15 (44.1%) patients with chemotherapy. Conclusions: 1L cemiplimab monotherapy improved OS, PFS, and ORR vs chemotherapy, in patients with advanced NSCLC with PD-L1 ≥50%, and clinically stable brain metastases at baseline. Cemiplimab monotherapy represents a suitable option for this subgroup of patients. Clinical trial information: NCT03088540. [Table: see text]