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What factors do you take into account for recommending chemo/IO vs IO/IO vs CheckMate 9LA regimen in front line therapy for PD-L1 negative advanced squamous cell carcinoma?

How do you interpret the comparative efficacy in squamous cell subsets among the CM vs KN vs EMPOWER studies?
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What factors most determine your choice of chemo/IO vs IO/IO vs chemo/nivo/ipi for PDL1(-) squamous NSCLC?

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4 Answers
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Medical Oncology · The Ohio State University School of Medicine
Answered on

As others have noted, the HR for the squamous subset of NSCLC seems to suggest that these patients benefit most from combined ICI, seen in both the CM227 and 9LA studies (with the caveat that comparator is chemotherapy alone which is now outdated.) In CM227, the HR for nivo-ipi vs chemo was 0.53 in ...

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Medical Oncology · Cedars-Sinai Medical Center
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It remains difficult to compare cohorts across studies due to the differing study designs and populations. The subpopulations in the analysis of SCC by PD-L1 expression are small and hypothesis generating at this time. The addition of chemotherapy to immunotherapy seems necessary to increase efficac...

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Medical Oncology · Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
Answered on

As noted previously, I think the data for squamous in CM-9LA are interesting, however, I am wary of subset analyses in general, it should also be noted that the uptake of subsequent IO in the chemo control arm of the 9LA study was generally lower than in the KN studies which may have affected the ti...

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Medical Oncology · University of Minnesota Medical School
Answered on

My default is usually chemo/IO as in KEYNOTE-407. However, if a patient is somewhat frail at the outset, and perhaps is aversive to the chemotherapy, then might choose Checkmate 9LA regimen to reduce it to 2 cycles or possibly Nivo/Ipi, though in the latter case, this is not FDA approved for PD-L1 n...

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