BACKGROUND

GEMSTONE-302 was a phase 3 trial in patients with treatment-naive metastatic squamous or non-squamous non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC), showed significant improvement in progression-free survival and overall survival with sugemalimab, a PD-L1 inhibitor, plus chemotherapy versus placebo plus chemotherapy. We report the 4-year outcomes from this study.

METHODS

This randomised, double-blind, phase 3 trial was conducted across 35 hospitals and academic research centres in China. Eligible patients were aged 18-75 years; had treatment-naive, histologically or cytologically confirmed stage IV NSCLC, irrespective of PD-L1 expression levels; and had an Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status of 0 or 1. Patients were randomised (2:1) by investigators using an interactive web response or voice response system via permuted blocks (block sizes of three or six, randomised within each stratum). Patients received histology-specific platinum-based chemotherapy combined with either sugemalimab (1200 mg; sugemalimab group) or placebo (placebo group) for up to four cycles, followed by for up to 35 cycles of maintenance therapy with sugemalimab alone for patients with squamous NSCLC and sugemalimab plus pemetrexed for patients with non-squamous NSCLC in the sugemalimab group, or placebo for patients with squamous NSCLC and placebo plus pemetrexed for patients with non-squamous NSCLC in the placebo group, administered intravenously. Treatment beyond 35 cycles was permitted at the investigator's discretion. The primary endpoint was investigator-assessed progression-free survival in the intention-to-treat population. Here, we report post-hoc 4-year efficacy and safety outcomes from GEMSTONE-302. This study is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT03789604) and concluded on May 15, 2023, with all patients discontinued.

FINDINGS

Between December 13, 2018, and May 15, 2020, 846 patients were assessed for eligibility. 479 patients were randomly assigned into the sugemalimab group (n=320) and placebo group (n=159). 254 (79%) patients were men and 66 (21%) were women in the sugemalimab group and 129 (81%) were men and 30 (19%) were women in the placebo group. All patients were Asian. As of the data cutoff on May 15, 2023, median follow-up durations were 43·5 months (IQR 41·2-46·9) in the sugemalimab group and 43·0 months (40·7-44·8) in the placebo group; median treatment durations were 7·2 months (4·2-18·8) with sugemalimab and 4·6 months (2·8-6·9) with placebo. Median progression-free survival was 9·0 months (95% CI 7·4-10·9) in the sugemalimab group versus 4·9 months (4·8-5·2) in the placebo group (hazard ratio [HR] 0·49 [95% CI 0·39-0·60]). Median overall survival was 25·2 months (20·1-30·2) in the sugemalimab group versus 16·9 months (12·8-20·7) in the placebo group (HR 0·68 [0·54-0·85]). The 4-year overall survival rates were 32·1% (95% CI 26·7-37·6) in the sugemalimab group versus 17·3% (11·1-24·7) in the placebo group. The most common grade 3-4 treatment related adverse events were decreased neutrophil count (105 [33%] with sugemalimab vs 52 [33%] with placebo), decreased white blood cell count (48 [15%] vs 27 [17%]), anaemia (44 [14%] vs 18 [11%]), and decreased platelet count (35 [11%] vs 15 [9%]). Treatment-related serious adverse events occurred in 82 (26%) patients with sugemalimab and 31 (20%) with placebo. No additional treatment-related deaths occurred since the previous overall survival interim analysis. No new safety signals were identified.

INTERPRETATION

Sugemalimab with chemotherapy showed a superior long-term overall survival benefit compared with placebo with chemotherapy, as a first-line treatment for patients with NSCLC with no known sensitising EGFR, ALK, ROS1, or RET genomic alterations. These results underscore the efficacy of sugemalimab plus platinum-based chemotherapy as a standard first-line treatment option for both squamous and non-squamous metastatic NSCLC while maintaining a manageable safety profile.

FUNDING

CStone Pharmaceuticals.

TRANSLATION

For the Chinese translation of the abstract see Supplementary Materials section.