Well, it’s basically an immunoglobulin monoclonal antibody, it works by a very cool trick; where it affects on the T-Cell and wakes it up to fight the cancerous cells. The T-Cell usually identifies and kills tumor cells, but due to a protein present on the tumor cell, PD-L1 that basically stop the T-Cell functions. To summarize the mechanism of action:
[epcl_box type=”information”]Durvalumab blocks programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1) binding to PD-1 and CD80 (B7.1) thus restores antitumor t-cell function.[/epcl_box]
https://www.imfinzihcp.com/
Durvalumab Dosing
Usually the dose is 10 mg/kg and the cycles are every 2 weeks, some protocols can be given as 1500mg flat dose every month.
Durvalumab is not emetogenic, thus might not need any prior anti emesis treatment.
Durvalumab is given diluted in 100ml saline and administered over 60 minutes.
The treatment to be continued every 2 weeks for at least a year, unless disease progression or fatal side effects.
[epcl_box type=”error”]Durvalumab dosing doesn’t require any modification for renal patients, however if the patient developed a renal toxicity after starting Durvalumab, then the dose has to be adjusted depending on serum creatinine elevation and managing other symptoms accordingly.[/epcl_box]
Antonia, S. J., Villegas, A., Daniel, D., Vicente, D., Murakami, S., Hui, R., . . . Özgüroğlu, M. (2017). Durvalumab after chemoradiotherapy in Stage III Non–Small-Cell lung cancer. New England Journal of Medicine,377(20), 1919-1929. doi:10.1056/nejmoa1709937