Association of planning target volume with disease progression in inoperable stage III non-small cell lung cancer patients treated with chemoradiotherapy and concurrent and/or sequential immune checkpoint inhibition.
e20557 Background: The present study evaluates outcome after chemoradiotherapy (CRT) with concurrent and/or sequential Programmed Cell Death 1 (PD-1) or Ligand 1 (PD-L1) immune checkpoint inhibition (CPI) for inoperable stage III NSCLC patients depending on planning target volume (PTV). Methods: Prospective data of thirty-nine consecutive patients with inoperable stage III NSCLC who completed CRT with sequential durvalumab (72%, 28 patients) or concurrent and sequential nivolumab (28%, 11 patients) were analyzed. Different cut offs for PTV as well as PTV as a continuous variable were evaluated for association with progression-free survival (PFS) and extracranial metastasis-free survival (eMFS). Results: All patients were treated with conventionally fractionated TRT to a total dose of at least 60 Gy (range: 60-63.6Gy), 97% (27 patients) received two cycles of concurrent platinum-based chemotherapy. Median follow-up for the entire cohort was 23.2 (range: 6.0-42.6) months; median overall survival (OS) and eMFS were not reached. Median Progression-free survival (PFS) was 22.8 (95% CI: 10.3-35.2) months. Age (65 years), gender and UICC stage had no significant impact on PFS. There was no significant difference between durvalumab and nivolumab patients. Patients with PTV ≥ 900ccm had a significantly shorter PFS (11.77 vs 26.3 months, p = 0.049) and eMFS (11.7 months vs not reached, p = 0.019). Furthermore, patients with PTV ≥ 900ccm and stage IIIC disease (TNM 8th Ed.) achieved a dismal median PFS of only 3.6 months (vs. 26.3 months p < 0.001). PTV as a continuous variable showed a trend for association with PFS (p = 0.064) and was a significant negative prognosticator for eMFS (p = 0.030; HR: 4.065; 95%CI: 1.148-14.397). Conclusions: PTV has a significant impact on the PFS and eMFS after CRT combined with concurrent and/or sequential CPI in inoperable stage III NSCLC. Patients with PTV ≥ 900ccm had a significantly shorter PFS and eMFS.