Atezolizumab Immunotherapy With or Without Tiragolumab for Patients With Unresectable Stage III NSCLC

This randomized phase II design provides a fairly rapid way to determine which of two potential neoadjuvant immunotherapy regimens holds the most promise for evaluation in a subsequent phase III trial against standard of care adjuvant immunotherapy. The AFT-16 trial of neoadjuvant atezolizumab in this setting provided proof of concept for safety of the neoadjuvant approach and for outcomes that compare favorably with standard of care therapy. The field of lung cancer immunotherapy is evolving rapidly and since the start of AFT-16 not only has adjuvant immunotherapy with durvalumab become standard of care, but combination immunotherapy with tiragolumab and atezolizumab for NSCLC has received breakthrough therapy designation. Safety of combination immunotherapy and radiation has been established in several trials, but the safety and efficacy of dual immunotherapy is not yet known. In a group of patients who can be but often are not cured with current therapies, establishment of a strategy that could increase cure rate is urgent. This randomized phase II trial can be advocated to determine the best of the two arms for further study with slightly inflated type I error rate