Predicting factors of symptomatic radiation pneumonitis induced by durvalumab following concurrent chemoradiotherapy in locally advanced non-small cell lung cancer

BACKGROUND: Concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CCRT) followed by durvalumab is the standard of care for unresectable locally-advanced non-small cell carcinoma (LA-NSCLC). However, a major concern about administration of durvalumab after CCRT is whether the incidence of symptomatic radiation pneumonitis (RP) may increase or not. In the present analysis, we report the initial results of CCRT followed by durvalumab in patients with LA-NSCLC in a real-world setting with focus on predicting factors for symptomatic RP. METHODS: Patients who were pathologically diagnosed as NSCLC and initiated treatment with CCRT followed by durvalumab between July 2018 to December 2019 were eligible for this study. Patients were included if they completed the planned CRT course and administered at least one course of durvalumab. We retrospectively investigated the preliminary survival outcome and incidence and predicting factors for symptomatic RP. RESULTS: Of the 67 patients who planned CCRT, 63 patients completed the entire CCRT course. Of these, 56 patients proceeded to consolidation with durvalumab. The median time to eternal discontinuation of durvalumab was 9.7 months. The cumulative proportion of the patients who exhibited symptomatic RP was 30, 40 and 44% at 3, 6 and 12 months, respectively. In multivariate analyses, pulmonary fibrosis score and lung V40 were significant predictive factors for symptomatic RP (p < 0.001, HR: 7.83, 95% CI: 3.38–18.13, and p = 0.034, HR: 3.17, 95% CI: 1.09–9.19, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: Pulmonary fibrosis sore and lung V40 were significant predictive factors for symptomatic RP. We should be cautious about the administration of durvalumab for patients having subclinical pulmonary fibrosis. To our best knowledge, this is one of the first report showing the predictive value of high dose volumes to the lung in patients with LA-NSCLC who received CCRT followed by durvalumab. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s13014-021-01979-z.