PD-L1 monoantial Imfinzi has been approved in Japan to treat a wide range of small cell lung cancer.

AstraZeneca's PD-L1 monoantigen-imfinzi (durvalumab) has been approved in Japan to treat patients with extensive stage small cell lung cancer (ES-SCLC) in combination with espressoside and a platinum chemotherapy drug (carbapene or cisplatin).
SCLC is a highly invasive and rapidly growing form of lung cancer that, despite its response to chemotherapy, relapses and progresses rapidly.
Imfinzi is an human-based monoclonal antibody that binds to PD-L1 and blocks the interaction between PD-L1 and PD-1 and CD80 to fight immune evasion of tumors and release inhibitions of the immune response.
: This approval is based on positive results from the CASPIAN PHASE III trial, which showed statistically and clinically significant improvements in overall survival rate (OS) compared to chemotherapy alone.
combined chemotherapy reduced the risk of death by 27 percent compared to alone chemotherapy, the mid-level OS? It was 13.0 months, while chemotherapy alone was 10.3 months.
results also showed that the objective response rate of Imfinzi combined chemotherapy increased to 68 per cent, compared with 58 per cent for chemotherapy alone.
results were published in the 2019 issue of Lancet.
photo sources: Paz-Ares L, Dvorkin M, Chen Y, et al. Durvalumab plus platinum-etoposide versus platinum-etoposide in first-line treatment of the general-stage small-cell cancer (CASPIAN): aside random, controlled, open-label, phase 3 trial. Lancet. 2019;394(10212):1929-1939.