{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,8]],"date-time":"2026-10-08T19:55:50Z","timestamp":1791489350289,"version":"4.3.4"},"reference-count":23,"publisher":"Springer Science and Business Media LLC","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,8]],"date-time":"2026-10-08T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1791417600000},"content-version":"tdm","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0"},{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,8]],"date-time":"2026-10-08T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1791417600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["link.springer.com"],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Strahlenther Onkol"],"abstract":"<jats:title>Abstract<\/jats:title>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Purpose<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>Radiochemotherapy (RCHT) followed by immunotherapy is the standard of care for unresectable, locally advanced non-small cell lung cancer (LA-NSCLC) patients. However, the impact of chemotherapy cycles and consolidation durvalumab on overall survival and toxicity remains uncertain in a\u00a0real-life cohort.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Methods<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>We retrospectively analyzed 90\u00a0patients with stage IIB\u2013IIIC LA-NSCLC treated with definitive RCHT (56\u201366\u202fGy, using weekly carboplatin\/paclitaxel). Fifty of these patients received consolidation durvalumab. Chemotherapy cycles were analyzed as a\u00a0stratified variable (1\u20134 vs.\u00a05\u20137\u00a0cycles) and as a\u00a0continuous predictor. Patients were also stratified by durvalumab administration. Early and late toxicities grade \u2265\u202f2 were evaluated according to CTCAE v5.0. Overall survival (OS) was assessed via Kaplan\u2013Meier analysis, log-rank test, Cox regression.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Results<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>\n                      Median follow-up was 33.5 months. Patients receiving 5\u20137 chemotherapy cycles had significantly longer OS than those with 1\u20134\u00a0cycles (\n                      <jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic>\n                      \u202f=\u20090.048). This finding was confirmed when treating the cycle number as a\u00a0continuous variable (HR\u202f=\u20090.75 per additional cycle;\n                      <jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic>\n                      \u202f=\u20090.017). Durvalumab showed a\u00a0trend towards improved OS (\n                      <jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic>\n                      \u202f=\u20090.075). No significant increase in early or late toxicity was observed with more chemotherapy cycles. Amongst the toxicity parameters, early grade \u2265\u202f2 anemia (27.8%) was associated with worse OS (\n                      <jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic>\n                      \u202f=\u20090.006).\n                    <\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Conclusion<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>Receipt of 5\u20137 chemotherapy cycles during RCHT was associated with improved OS without an increase in grade \u2265\u202f2 toxicity. Early anemia emerged as a\u00a0key prognostic marker and was closely linked to chemotherapy de-escalation. In addition, OS estimates in durvalumab-treated patients were broadly consistent with outcomes reported in pivotal post-CRT immunotherapy trials.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.1007\/s00066-026-02612-2","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,8]],"date-time":"2026-10-08T19:28:22Z","timestamp":1791487702000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1007\/springer_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Increased number of chemotherapy cycles during radiochemotherapy improves overall survival without increasing toxicity in locally advanced non-small cell lung cancer patients"],"prefix":"10.1007","author":[{"given":"Anna","family":"Simbirova","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Steffen","family":"L\u00f6ck","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Steffen","family":"Appold","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Alex","family":"Zwanenburg","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Dirk","family":"Koschel","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Olaf","family":"Holotiuk","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Rebecca","family":"B\u00fctof","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-9550-9050","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Esther G. 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Simbirova, S. L\u00f6ck, S. Appold, A. Zwanenburg, D. Koschel, O. Holotiuk, R. B\u00fctof and E.G. C. Troost declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.","order":1,"name":"Ethics","label":"Competing interest","group":{"name":"EthicsHeading","label":"Declarations"}}]}}