Perioperative toripalimab plus chemotherapy versus chemotherapy alone in locally advanced G/GEJ cancer: 3-year follow-up of NEOSUMMIT-01

The randomized phase 2 NEOSUMMIT-01 trial, at Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center (Guangzhou, China) previously showed that adding the PD-1 antibody toripalimab to perioperative chemotherapy improved pathologic response in patients with locally advanced gastric or gastroesophageal junction (LA G/GEJ) cancer. Three-year follow-up results from NEOSUMMIT-01 have now been published. A total of 108 patients were enrolled (54 toripalimab plus chemotherapy, 54 chemotherapy alone). At the data cutoff date, the median follow-up was 43.2 months. The 3-year event-free survival rate was 74.7% in the toripalimab plus chemotherapy group versus 56.2% in the chemotherapy alone group (HR 0.51; p=0.044) and the 3-year overall survival rate was 81.3% versus 72.2% (HR 0.45; p=0.036). The survival benefits were consistent across most predefined subgroups and were maintained in the analysis excluding patients with dMMR disease. The authors conclude that perioperative toripalimab plus chemotherapy significantly improved 3-year EFS and OS compared with chemotherapy alone, suggesting it as a promising treatment option for LA G/GEJ cancer.