Immune Profiling of Stage III Non-small Cell Lung Cancer Patients Treated With Concurrent Chemoradiation and Adjuvant Durvalumab: A Prospective Observational Phase II Trial
Currently, there is only limited data available on the functional immune changes after concurrent chemoradiation in NSCLC (non-small cell lung cancer) patients. Identifying the effect of the treatment on immune cells and what their functional consequences are is an essential first step to come to prognostic and predictive biomarkers. Many studies investigating the role of immunomodulatory effects of treatment are carried out in either in vitro or in vivo animal models. However, identified factors frequently hamper clinical validation. In addition, as mentioned earlier, although several immunogenic factors have been shown to be released by irradiated tumor cells, so far, only a limited number of studies searched for potential predictive and prognostic immunological biomarkers. This will be the first time that the immune effects of both treatment modalities will be studied, with, in addition, the immune changes during durvalumab treatment, which are also unknown at present. By getting more insight in the treatment-induced immunomodulatory effects, ultimately, in subsequent projects, this will allow to determine optimal immune stimulation and hence improved outcomes of subsequent durvalumab immune therapy.
Start: April 2021