# Tarlatamab in Small-Cell Lung Cancer after Platinum-Based Chemotherapy

Source: https://onco.cc/key-papers/paper-tarlatamab-sclc-n-engl-j-med-2025/  
OnCo record `paper-tarlatamab-sclc-n-engl-j-med-2025` (Key paper). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from OnCo (onco.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

Phase 2 or 3 results paper on Tarlatamab in Small-cell lung cancer, in New England Journal of Medicine (2025), one of the most cited Europe PMC records with Tarlatamab in its title.

## Summary

Background: Tarlatamab, a bispecific delta-like ligand 3-directed T-cell engager immunotherapy, received accelerated approval for the treatment of patients with previously treated small-cell lung cancer. Whether tarlatamab is more effective than chemotherapy in the treatment of patients whose small-cell lung cancer has progressed during or after initial platinum-based chemotherapy is not known.

Methods: We conducted a multinational, phase 3, open-label trial to compare tarlatamab with chemotherapy as second-line treatment in patients with small-cell lung cancer whose disease had progressed during or after platinum-based chemotherapy. Patients were randomly assigned to receive tarlatamab or chemotherapy (topotecan, lurbinectedin, or amrubicin). The primary end point was overall survival. Key secondary end points were investigator-assessed progression-free survival and patient-reported outcomes. Results of the prespecified interim analysis (data-cutoff date, January 29, 2025) are reported.

Results: A total of 509 patients were randomly assigned to receive tarlatamab (254 patients) or chemotherapy (255 patients). Treatment with tarlatamab resulted in significantly longer overall survival than chemotherapy (median, 13.6 months [95% confidence interval {CI}, 11.1 to not reached] vs. 8.3 months [95% CI, 7.0 to 10.2]; stratified hazard ratio for death, 0.60; 95% CI, 0.47 to 0.77; P<0.001). Tarlatamab treatment also had a significant benefit with respect to progression-free survival and cancer-related dyspnea and cough as compared with chemotherapy. The incidence of adverse events of grade 3 or higher was lower with tarlatamab than with chemotherapy (54% vs. 80%), as was the incidence of adverse events resulting in treatment discontinuation (5% vs. 12%).

Conclusions: Treatment with tarlatamab led to longer overall survival than chemotherapy among patients with small-cell lung cancer whose disease had progressed during or after platinum-based chemotherapy. (Funded by Amgen; DeLLphi-304 ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT05740566.).

Indexed on Europe PMC as PubMed record 40454646 (DOI 10.1056/nejmoa2502099). Its title names Tarlatamab and its text names Small-cell lung cancer; PubMed types it as a clinical trial report (Clinical Trial, Phase III, Comparative Study, Multicenter Study, Randomized Controlled Trial). It was matched automatically to the idea "Subtype-directed therapy for SCLC (ASCL1 / NEUROD1 / POU2F3 / inflamed)" and no figure has been checked by an editor.

## Fields

- Kind: Key paper
- Last checked: 2026-09-22
- Tags: europepmc-ingest
- Journal: New England Journal of Medicine
- Year: 2025
- DOI: 10.1056/nejmoa2502099
- Authors: Mountzios G, Sun L, Cho BC, et al.
- What it means: One of the most cited trial reports Europe PMC returns for Tarlatamab in Small-cell lung cancer, so it is a natural first reading for anyone weighing the idea it is linked from. The record was linked automatically by title and abstract; read the abstract above and the paper itself before relying on any figure.
- Caveats: Matched by Tarlatamab in the title and Small-cell lung cancer in the title or abstract of the Europe PMC record; the summary reproduces the record's abstract and no figure has been verified against the full paper.; Chosen as a phase 2 or 3 report by the record's publication type or its own wording, not by reading the paper.

## Sources

- N Engl J Med 2025: https://doi.org/10.1056/nejmoa2502099
- PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40454646/
- Europe PMC: https://europepmc.org/article/MED/40454646
- ClinicalTrials.gov NCT05740566: https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT05740566

## Connected records

- trials: [DeLLphi-304](https://onco.cc/trials/dellphi-304/)
- journals: [New England Journal of Medicine](https://onco.cc/journals/nejm/)
- ideas: [Subtype-directed therapy for SCLC (ASCL1 / NEUROD1 / POU2F3 / inflamed)](https://onco.cc/ideas/idea-sclc-subtype-directed/)

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