Platinum Doublet plus Atezolizumab as First-line Treatment in Metastatic Large Cell Neuroendocrine Carcinoma: A Single Institution Experience

Abstract

Background

Large Cell Neuroendocrine Carcinoma of the Lung (L-LCNEC) is a rare type of neuroendocrine lung cancer that is increasingly diagnosed. However, the optimal management regarding the advanced stage is unclear. The purpose of this article is to present and compare our experience when L-LCNEC is treated as Small Cell Lung Cancer (SCLC).

Patients and Methods

Overall, eight cases of L-LCNEC were included. We retrospectively reviewed medical files and reports by accessing the Institution's Data of patients diagnosed with L-LCNEC from April 2019 until December 2020 and evaluated their response to the combination of Platinum – Etoposide – Atezolizumab as first-line chemotherapy.

Results

The overall observed response rate (ORR) of 75%. The median PFS was 6.85 months. The median response duration was 5.5 months.

Conclusions

Comparing our findings with other retrospective and prospective studies, it seems that the systematic treatment of choice and management in L-LCNEC of the lung should be that of a small cell carcinoma of the lung.

Keywords:

• Lung carcinoma
• large cell neuroendocrine carcinoma
• neuroendocrine carcinoma
• chemotherapy
• treatment

Ethics approval

Ethical approval was granted by the Ethics Committee of the Bank of Cyprus Oncology Centre. Consent was obtained from patients. This study complies with our institutions and country's requirements regarding ethics approval. This study was performed in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki.

Disclosure statement

No potential competing interest was reported by the author(s).

Funding information

No funds, grants, material, or other support was received. The authors have no financial or proprietary interests in any material discussed in this article.

Data availability statement

The datasets generated and analyzed during the current study are not publicly available. These data were obtained from the Institution's database and are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.