Why carry out this study?

Small-cell lung cancer is a very aggressive neoplasm with a dismal prognosis that accounts for 10–15% of all newly diagnosed lung cancers.

With the standard of care (combination of platinum agents with etoposide), most patients progress soon after initial treatment, with a median overall survival of 10 months.

In recent years, several studies have shown good results with the addition of checkpoint inhibitors as first-line treatment; however, more research is needed to deepen the knowledge regarding efficacy and safety, and subgroup analysis.

What was learned from the study?

The addition of immune checkpoint inhibitors to chemotherapy as first-line treatment improves the survival of patients with extensive-stage small-cell lung cancer, specifically in terms of overall survival and progression-free survival.

Among the analysed checkpoint inhibitors, atezolizumab and durvalumab combinations showed the best results.