This was an investigator-initiated, single-arm phase 2 clinical trial conducted at an academic institution in India. The study was conducted in accordance with Good Clinical Practice and approved by the institute ethics committee (IECPG-63428.11.2019 dated 29.11.2019). It was registered with the Clinical Trial Registry of India (CTRI/2020/01/022617).
Patient eligibility
All patients of histologically proven stage IIIC/IV NSCLC (AJCC 8th ed)(Rami-Porta et al. 2014), aged 18–65 years, with ECOG PS of 2 or more, were eligible for this study. Inclusion criteria also encompassed adequate bone marrow, liver, and kidney function: defined as hemoglobin of ≥ 8g/dl, platelet count of ≥ 1,00,000/mm3, ANC of ≥ 1500cells/ mm3, bilirubin less than 2 times ULN, transaminases less than 3 times ULN, and an estimated GFR of ≥ 30ml/min/BSA, respectively. Charlson's comorbidity index(CCI) score (Charlson et al. 1987; Zhao et al. 2017) was calculated at baseline. Participants should have had a CCI score of less than 9 with any comorbid conditions under control and a serum albumin of ≥ 3.5g/dl.
Patients who were pregnant or lactating, had secondary malignancy, had HIV or hepatitis B or C positive status, known driver mutation-positive status for EGFR/ALK/ROS1, and symptomatic untreated brain metastasis was excluded from the study. Unknown/pending driver mutation status patients were allowed to be enrolled, and if they were found to have these alterations during the course, they were excluded from the study. Treated brain metastasis or those with asymptomatic brain metastasis were allowed. Informed consent was obtained from all participants.
Treatment/Intervention
Enrolled patients received paclitaxel at 60mg/m2 of body surface area (BSA) intravenously (IV) over 1 hour every seven days (±1 day for holiday/Sunday) for 3 doses. Pre- and post- medication were as per institute protocol. In addition, palliative radiotherapy and supportive treatment for symptom palliation were provided at the treating physician's discretion.
Patient assessment
PS assessment
ECOG PS assessment was done by three physicians other than the primary investigator: a consultant medical oncologist, one medical oncology fellow, and one palliative medicine physician. The assessment was performed independently from one another. The worst of the three scores was considered. This was done to mitigate bias in the evaluation of performance scores. ECOG PS was recorded at baseline and 4 weeks from the start of therapy.
Evaluation
Comprehensive history and examination, complete blood count (CBC), liver and kidney function tests (LFT and KFT), serum LDH, peripheral smear, and staging by contrast-enhanced computed tomography (CECT) of chest, abdomen, and pelvis or Whole body PETCT were recorded at baseline. Before each dose of chemotherapy, patients were examined physically, and CBC/LFT/KFT for their general condition and toxicities were recorded with their grade of severity.
Quality of life assessment
QoL assessment was performed using two European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) questionnaires: a core questionnaire (QLQ-C 30) and a Lung cancer focussed questionnaire, LC-13 (2017a). The QLQ C-30 thirty-item cancer-specific questionnaire consists of five functional domain scales (physical, role, emotional, social, and cognitive), global QoL, and symptom scales. LC-13 has questions on lung cancer-associated symptoms and adverse effects related to treatment QoL was measured at baseline and at 4 weeks for all patients.
Permission for the use of both questionnaires was obtained for Hindi and English (EORTC request ID: 63617). Interpretation was as per the EORTC manual. The patient completed the questionnaires at baseline and four weeks
Management of toxicity
Toxicities were measured using the CTCAE v5.0 scale (2017b). All grade 1 toxicity was managed conservatively. For grade 2 toxicities, we provided symptomatic management until they were reduced to grade 1 or better. For grade3/4 toxicities, patients were not administered further chemotherapy and were provided best supportive care out of protocol.
Study endpoints
The study's primary endpoint was an improvement in PS by 1 point at the end of 4 weeks after receiving three doses of weekly paclitaxel. Secondary endpoints included assessment of adverse events, QoL, progression-free survival(PFS), and overall survival (OS).
PFS was defined as the time from the first day of treatment until progressive disease/death from any cause, whichever came first. Surviving patients who did not progress were censored for PFS as of the date of their last assessment or (date of data lock, 31st December 2021), whichever was earlier. OS was defined as the time from the first day of treatment until the date of death from any cause.
Statistical analysis
We assumed an improvement in PS by one point in 25% of patients with chemotherapy (alternative hypothesis) vs. 10% with best supportive care (BSC) alone (null hypothesis). Accrual of forty-three patients was required for a type 1 error of 0.048 and a power of 80% to detect whether PS improvement with paclitaxel would be more than 25%. We used the Simon 2 stage optimal design (Simon 1989) with an initial 18 patients enrolled and evaluated for improvement in PS. The trial would continue only if three or more patients showed an increase in ECOG PS by one point at the end of one month. The null hypothesis would have to be rejected if eight or more responses were observed.
Data entry was done using Microsoft Excel, and analysis was done with STATA 14 (StataCorp™, College Station, TX, USA). Baseline categorical variables were analyzed using the Chi-Square test/ Fischer Exact test. Proportions were calculated and reported with 95% confidence intervals (CI). Non-parametric variables were analyzed using paired t-test/ Mann-Whitney test for paired data and Wilcoxon sign rank/independent t-test for unmatched data. Survival was estimated by the Kaplan–Meier’s method and the log-rank test were used to identify prognostic factors. Univariate and multivariate analyses were performed to identify predictive factors for survival. Cox proportional hazards model was used to calculate the hazard ratio.