Extensive stage small-cell lung cancer (ES-SCLC) continues to have a dismal prognosis, with benchmark median overall survival (OS) durations of little over 1 year.
Many patients are unable to receive second-line therapy owing to rapid clinical deterioration, emphasizing the importance of improving first-line treatment.
Now, new data from the phase III DeLLphi-305 trial, presented at the ESMO Congress 2026 and simultaneously published in The New England Journal of Medicine, demonstrate highly meaningful benefits from adding the DLL3 × CD3 bispecific T cell-engager tarlatamab to maintenance treatment in the frontline setting.
In this trial, 563 patients without disease progression after induction platinum–etoposide chemotherapy plus durvalumab were randomly assigned (1:1) to receive maintenance durvalumab with versus without tarlatamab.
The primary end point was OS measured from the time of randomization at the start of maintenance therapy.
Extensive stage small-cell lung cancer (ES-SCLC) continues to have a dismal prognosis, with benchmark median overall survival (OS) durations of little over 1 year. Many patients are unable to receive second-line therapy owing to rapid clinical deterioration, emphasizing the importance of improving first-line treatment. Now, new data from the phase III DeLLphi-305 trial, presented at the ESMO Congress 2026 and simultaneously published in The New England Journal of Medicine, demonstrate highly meaningful benefits from adding the DLL3 × CD3 bispecific T cell-engager tarlatamab to maintenance treatment in the frontline setting.
In this trial, 563 patients without disease progression after induction platinum–etoposide chemotherapy plus durvalumab were randomly assigned (1:1) to receive maintenance durvalumab with versus without tarlatamab. The primary end point was OS measured from the time of randomization at the start of maintenance therapy.
