Durvalumab immunotherapy combined with neoadjuvant chemotherapy before surgery leads to superior improvements in patients with resectable non-small cell lung cancer than chemotherapy alone, according to its sponsor.

Interim results from the stage III AEGEAN trial also show that the safety and tolerability of this combination approach did not reduce the number of patients undergoing successful surgery, AstraZeneca said.

The manufacturer said investigators had reported a statistically significant improvement in major pathologic response and pathologic complete response in resectable non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

The pharmaceutical giant, which announced the early findings at the end of June, said the trial of durvalumab (Imfinzi) would continue as planned to assess event-free survival.