scholarly journals First‐Line Pembrolizumab Versus Chemotherapy in Metastatic Non–Small‐Cell Lung Cancer: KEYNOTE‐024 Japan Subset

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miyako Satouchi ◽  
Kaname Nosaki ◽  
Toshiaki Takahashi ◽  
Kazuhiko Nakagawa ◽  
Keisuke Aoe ◽  
...  
Cancers ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (15) ◽  
pp. 3828
Author(s):  
Anello Marcello Poma ◽  
Rossella Bruno ◽  
Iacopo Pietrini ◽  
Greta Alì ◽  
Giulia Pasquini ◽  
...  

Pembrolizumab has been approved as first-line treatment for advanced Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients with tumors expressing PD-L1 and in the absence of other targetable alterations. However, not all patients that meet these criteria have a durable benefit. In this monocentric study, we aimed at refining the selection of patients based on the expression of immune genes. Forty-six consecutive advanced NSCLC patients treated with pembrolizumab in first-line setting were enrolled. The expression levels of 770 genes involved in the regulation of the immune system was analysed by the nanoString system. PD-L1 expression was evaluated by immunohistochemistry. Patients with durable clinical benefit had a greater infiltration of cytotoxic cells, exhausted CD8, B-cells, CD45, T-cells, CD8 T-cells and NK cells. Immune cell scores such as CD8 T-cell and NK cell were good predictors of durable response with an AUC of 0.82. Among the immune cell markers, XCL1/2 showed the better performance in predicting durable benefit to pembrolizumab, with an AUC of 0.85. Additionally, CD8A, CD8B and EOMES showed a high specificity (>0.86) in identifying patients with a good response to treatment. In the same series, PD-L1 expression levels had an AUC of 0.61. The characterization of tumor microenvironment, even with the use of single markers, can improve patients’ selection for pembrolizumab treatment.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
pp. 175883592098036
Author(s):  
Saira Farid ◽  
Stephen V. Liu

Small-cell lung cancer (SCLC) is a highly lethal subtype of lung cancer. Despite concerted efforts over the past several decades, there have been limited therapeutic advances. Traditional chemotherapy offers a high response rate and rapid symptomatic improvement, but its benefit is fleeting, and relapse is quick and unforgiving. Immunotherapy has delivered improved outcomes for patients with many cancers and there was compelling rationale for development in SCLC. While initial efforts with cytotoxic T-lymphocyte protein-4 inhibitors failed to improve upon chemotherapy alone, the addition of programmed death ligand-1 (PD-L1) inhibitors to first-line chemotherapy finally provided long-awaited gains in survival. Atezolizumab, when added to carboplatin and etoposide, improved both progression-free survival and overall survival. Durvalumab, when added to platinum plus etoposide, similarly improved OS. Biomarker development has stalled as PD-L1 expression and tumor mutational burden have not been useful predictive biomarkers. However, based on the significant survival improvements, both atezolizumab and durvalumab were approved by the US Food and Drug Administration to be given with first-line chemotherapy, and these regimens represent the new standards of care for SCLC.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. e002421
Author(s):  
Alessio Cortellini ◽  
Massimo Di Maio ◽  
Olga Nigro ◽  
Alessandro Leonetti ◽  
Diego L Cortinovis ◽  
...  

BackgroundSome concomitant medications including antibiotics (ATB) have been reproducibly associated with worse survival following immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) in unselected patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) (according to programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) expression and treatment line). Whether such relationship is causative or associative is matter of debate.MethodsWe present the outcomes analysis according to concomitant baseline medications (prior to ICI initiation) with putative immune-modulatory effects in a large cohort of patients with metastatic NSCLC with a PD-L1 expression ≥50%, receiving first-line pembrolizumab monotherapy. We also evaluated a control cohort of patients with metastatic NSCLC treated with first-line chemotherapy. The interaction between key medications and therapeutic modality (pembrolizumab vs chemotherapy) was validated in pooled multivariable analyses.Results950 and 595 patients were included in the pembrolizumab and chemotherapy cohorts, respectively. Corticosteroid and proton pump inhibitor (PPI) therapy but not ATB therapy was associated with poorer performance status at baseline in both the cohorts. No association with clinical outcomes was found according to baseline statin, aspirin, β-blocker and metformin within the pembrolizumab cohort. On the multivariable analysis, ATB emerged as a strong predictor of worse overall survival (OS) (HR=1.42 (95% CI 1.13 to 1.79); p=0.0024), and progression free survival (PFS) (HR=1.29 (95% CI 1.04 to 1.59); p=0.0192) in the pembrolizumab but not in the chemotherapy cohort. Corticosteroids were associated with shorter PFS (HR=1.69 (95% CI 1.42 to 2.03); p<0.0001), and OS (HR=1.93 (95% CI 1.59 to 2.35); p<0.0001) following pembrolizumab, and shorter PFS (HR=1.30 (95% CI 1.08 to 1.56), p=0.0046) and OS (HR=1.58 (95% CI 1.29 to 1.94), p<0.0001), following chemotherapy. PPIs were associated with worse OS (HR=1.49 (95% CI 1.26 to 1.77); p<0.0001) with pembrolizumab and shorter OS (HR=1.12 (95% CI 1.02 to 1.24), p=0.0139), with chemotherapy. At the pooled analysis, there was a statistically significant interaction with treatment (pembrolizumab vs chemotherapy) for corticosteroids (p=0.0020) and PPIs (p=0.0460) with respect to OS, for corticosteroids (p<0.0001), ATB (p=0.0290), and PPIs (p=0.0487) with respect to PFS, and only corticosteroids (p=0.0033) with respect to objective response rate.ConclusionIn this study, we validate the significant negative impact of ATB on pembrolizumab monotherapy but not chemotherapy outcomes in NSCLC, producing further evidence about their underlying immune-modulatory effect. Even though the magnitude of the impact of corticosteroids and PPIs is significantly different across the cohorts, their effects might be driven by adverse disease features.


2021 ◽  
Vol 32 ◽  
pp. S334
Author(s):  
Takayuki Takeda ◽  
Yuri Ogura ◽  
Nobutaka Kataoka ◽  
Yusuke Kunimatsu ◽  
Yusuke Tachibana ◽  
...  

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