Immunotherapy combo adds nearly a year of survival in advanced endometrial cancer
Editorial illustrationPatients with advanced or recurrent endometrial cancer who received an immunotherapy-based regimen combining durvalumab with the PARP inhibitor olaparib lived almost a year longer than patients treated with chemotherapy alone, according to updated phase 3 results presented Saturday at the ESMO Congress 2026 in Madrid.
In the global DUO-E trial, treatment with durvalumab plus chemotherapy followed by maintenance durvalumab and olaparib achieved a median overall survival of 51.1 months, compared with 39.6 months for chemotherapy alone — an improvement of 11.5 months. The findings were presented by principal investigator Shannon Westin, M.D., of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.
“These results demonstrate that combining immunotherapy with a PARP inhibitor can deliver durable survival benefits for patients with advanced or recurrent endometrial cancer,” Westin said. “The findings are particularly noteworthy for patients with pMMR tumors, who represent the majority of cases and have traditionally had fewer effective treatment options.”
The trial randomized 718 patients with newly diagnosed stage III or IV or recurrent endometrial cancer to chemotherapy alone, chemotherapy plus durvalumab, or chemotherapy plus durvalumab followed by durvalumab plus olaparib. One caution: this prespecified interim overall-survival analysis, at a median follow-up of 52 months, did not meet the trial's bar for statistical significance in the overall population — so researchers describe the 11.5-month gain as numerical, with follow-up ongoing.
Sources: OncLive (Oct 24, 2026); The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center (Oct 24, 2026).
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