Patients with extensive-stage small-cell lung cancer (ES-SCLC) usually receive platinum-based chemotherapy plus an immune-checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) as first-line therapy, although disease relapse is a concern. Now, data from the phase III ETER701 trial demonstrate that the combination of the anti-angiogenic agent anlotinib plus the anti-PD-L1 antibody benmelstobart and chemotherapy has promising efficacy in this setting.

Patients were randomly allocated to receive anlotinib plus benmelstobart and chemotherapy (triplet regimen; n = 246), anlotinib plus placebo and chemotherapy (doublet regimen; n = 245) or double placebo plus chemotherapy (the standard of care in China at the time of trial design) (n = 247). Progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) were the co-primary end points.