Weekly nab-paclitaxel resulted in a favorable objective response rate with acceptable toxicity in previously treated patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), a study published in the Journal of Thoracic Oncology has shown.1

Weekly nab-paclitaxel is indicated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the first-line treatment of locally advanced or metastatic NSCLC, in combination with carboplatin, for patients who are not candidates for curative surgery or radiation therapy. Researchers assessed the activity and tolerability of single-agent nab-paclitaxel for patients who have received prior therapy for advanced NSCLC.

For this multicenter, open-label, phase 2 trial, investigators enrolled 41 patients with advanced NSCLC who experienced disease progression on or after platinum-doublet chemotherapy. All participants received nab-paclitaxel 100 mg/m2 IV on days 1, 8, and 15, of each 21-day cycle until disease progression or unacceptable toxicity.

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The objective response rate was 31.7% (90% CI, 19.3-44.1), meeting the study’s primary endpoint. Patients received a median of 4 treatment cycles and the median dose intensity was 89.1 mg/m2 per week.

Median progression-free survival was 4.9 months (95% CI, 2.4-7.4); median overall survival was 13.0 months (95% CI, 8.0-18.0).

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Toxicity was considered acceptable: 19.5% and 17.1% of patients experienced grade 3 to 4 neutropenia and leukopenia, respectively. No cases of febrile neutropenia were observed.

The findings suggest that the efficacy and safety of weekly nab-paclitaxel warrant further investigation in a phase 3 trial, particularly in comparison with docetaxel, for this patient population.                 

Reference

  1. Sakata S, Saeki S, Okamoto I, Otsubo K, Komiya K, Morinaga R, et al. Phase II trial of weekly nab-paclitaxel for previously treated advanced non–small cell lung cancer: Kumamoto Thoracic Oncology Study Group (KTOSG) Trial 1301 [published online ahead of print June 13, 2016]. J Thorac Oncol. doi: 10.1016/j.lungcan.2016.06.009.

Topics:

Lung Cancer Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer