OBJECTIVE: To describe real-world clinical characteristics, treatment patterns, and health care resource utilization among patients who did not experience disease progression during their first two cycles of chemoradiation for unresectable, locally advanced, stage III non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in Europe.
METHODS: In the United Kingdom (UK), Germany, and Spain, medical records of patients aged ≥18 years and diagnosed with unresectable, locally advanced, stage III NSCLC were retrospectively reviewed. Eligible patients completed ≥2 cycles of concurrent, platinum-based chemoradiation between January 1, 2011, and March 31, 2016, without experiencing disease progression. The start date of the third cycle or 3 weeks following the end of the second cycle defined the index date for observing outcomes.
RESULTS: The sample included 162 (UK), 155 (Germany), and 159 (Spain) eligible patients. Information on the specific sites and physicians that participated in the study is not available due to the blinded study design. Most patients were male and initially diagnosed with stage IIIA or IIIB disease. Few patients received programmed cell death ligand-1 (PD-L1) testing (UK, 11.8%; Germany, 9.7%; Spain, 5.0%). At the index date, the median age was 59.8 (UK) and 59.3 (Germany and Spain) years, and 90.1% (UK), 82.6% (Germany), and 89.3% (Spain) had a performance status of 0 or 1. The most frequently administered initial chemoradiation regimen was cisplatin and vinorelbine (UK, 40.1%; Germany, 29.7%; Spain, 39.6%). The median number of cycles administered was 3 in the UK and Spain and 2 in Germany. Following chemoradiation, 42.0% (UK), 30.3% (Germany), and 22.6% (Spain) initiated additional treatment for stage III disease; chemotherapy was the most common first subsequent treatment in this setting (UK, 85.3%; Germany, 95.7%; Spain, 83.3%).
CONCLUSIONS: Patients treated with concurrent chemoradiation generally received initial therapies according to guidelines. Testing for PD-L1 is infrequent.
