Symptom Management in CheckMate-73L Trial

The phase 3 CheckMate-73L trial (NCT04026412) is assessing the safety and efficacy of combining immunotherapy and chemotherapy with radiation in patients with stage III non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) that is unable or not planned to be removed by surgery.

Nagla Abdel Karim, MD, professor of medicine, medical director, Georgia Cancer, discussed how investigators plan to monitor patient responses and prepare for potential adverse events associated with treating patients with ipilimumab (Yervoy) plus nivolumab, along with chemotherapy.

“We are aware that patients can have inflammation of the esophagus, some difficulty swallowing, some inflammations. We have the nausea, the vomiting, the best supportive care works well to control those side effects,” she explained. “In addition, and if we are adding immunotherapy during that period of time, or later on in the consolidation.. we pay attention to the autoimmune side effects. That’s why we monitor the thyroid function, we monitor if patients get diarrhea, if there are sides of colitis or pneumonitis, if they have inflation of the lungs, if they get a shortness of breath, or just [are] out of breath while doing daily activities, we monitor oxygen level.”