A multicenter, open label, randomized phase III study of atezolizumab with platinum-pemetrexed and with or without bevacizumab for patients with advanced nonsquamous non-small cell lung cancer (WJOG11218L APPLE Study)

TPS9125 Background: First-line treatment of non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) has undergone a paradigm shift to platinum combination therapy together with an immune-checkpoint inhibitor. Bevacizumab is expected to enhance not only chemotherapy but also the efficacy of immune-checkpoint inhibitors through blockade of vascular endothelial growth factor–mediated immunosuppression. The aim of this trial is to demonstrate an additional effect of bevacizumab administered together with platinum combination therapy and the immune-checkpoint inhibitor atezolizumab in patients with advanced nonsquamous NSCLC. Methods: Cytotoxic chemotherapy–naïve patients aged 20 years or older with a performance status of 0 or 1 are randomly assigned in a 1:1 ratio to receive either atezolizumab plus pemetrexed-carboplatin (APP) or atezolizumab, pemetrexed-carboplatin, and bevacizumab (APPB). Patients with genetic driver alterations such as those affecting EGFR or ALK are included if they have experienced disease progression or unacceptable side effects during treatment with at least one approved tyrosine kinase inhibitor. After four cycles of induction therapy, maintenance therapy with atezolizumab plus pemetrexed or with atezolizumab plus pemetrexed plus bevacizumab is administered for up to 2 years until evidence of disease progression or development of unacceptable toxicity. The primary end point is progression-free survival (according to central image review). Secondary end points are progression-free survival (determined by the attending physician), overall survival, response rate, response duration, and adverse events. Stratification factors are PD-L1 tumor proportion score (≥50% vs. < 50%), stage, and driver gene alterations. We determined that, with a sample size of 350 patients (175 in each arm), the trial will have 80% power to show a hazard ratio for disease progression or death of 0.727 at a one-sided alpha level of 0.025 (as calculated on the basis of 311 such events) for comparison between the APPB and APP groups. Clinical trial information: 194565.