Efficacy and safety of utidelone for the treatment of patients with locally advanced or metastatic non-small-cell lung cancer who have failed standard second-line treatment:A phase 2 clinical trial(BG01-1801)

Background:Chemotherapy remains the standard-of-care for many patients with locally advanced or metastatic non-small-cell lung cancer(NSCLC),but acquired resistance presents challenges.The aim of this open-label,multicenter phase 2 clinical trial was to determine the efficacy and safety of utidelone,a novel genetically engineered epothilone analog and microtubule-stabilizing agent,as a third-or later-line treatment for locally advanced ormetastatic NSCLC.Methods:Patients who had failed standard second-line treatment(including platinum-containing chemotherapy or targeted therapy)received utidelone(40 mg/m?via intravenous injection daily,day 1-5)every 21 days.The primary endpoint was the objective response rate(ORR).Secondary endpoints were the duration of response(DoR),progression-free survival(PFS),overall survival(OS),and safety.Results:From March 12,2019 to January 18,2021,26 pretreated patients with locally advanced or metastatic NSCLC(100%of patients had received prior platinum and 65.4%patients had received prior taxane treatment)were enrolled(80.8%of patients had adenocarcinoma).At baseline,nine(34.6%)patients had received secondline treatment,10(38.5%)patients had received third-line treatment,and seven(26.9%)patients had received fourth-or later-line treatment.By the data cut-off date of August 10,2021,the median follow-up was 7.49 months(range,1.4-26.7 months).The ORR was 15.4%(95%confidence interval[CI],4.4%-34.9%)in the intention-totreat(ITT)cohort(N=26)and 19.0%(95%CI,5.4%-41.9%)in the per-protocol(PP)cohort(N=21).The disease control rate was 69.2%(95%CI,48.2%-85.7%)and 81.0%(95%CI,58.1%-94.6%)in the ITT and PP cohorts,respectively.The median DoR was 4.1 months(95%CI,3.1-5.1 months)in the ITT cohort.The median PFS was 4.37 months(95%CI,2.50-5.29 months)in the ITT cohort and 4.37 months(95%CI,2.50-9.76 months)in the PP cohort.The median OS was not reached,and the 12-month OS rate was 69%(95%CI,45.1%-84.1%).Grade 3/4 treatment-emergent adverse events occurred in 38.5%of patients,and the most common was peripheral neuropathy(23.1%,all Grade 3),which was manageable with dose modifications.Conclusions:In this clinical trial,utidelone showed promising efficacy and had a manageable safety profile.Furtherclinical studies arewarranted to confirm its role in NSCLC treatment.Trial registration:No.NCT03693547;https://classic.clinicaltrials.gov.