Prognostic factors of advanced or postoperative recurrent non-small cell lung cancer targeted with immune check point inhibitors

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Although immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) have been established as one of standard therapy, the prognostic factors of ICIs remain unclear, aside from the programed cell death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) expression of tumor cells. The aim of this study was to determine the prognostic factors of ICIs. METHODS: We analyzed the clinicopathological data of 44 cases of advanced NSCLC targeted with ICIs in our hospital, between February 2016 and February 2018, in order to determine the prognostic factors of ICIs. We also reviewed the literature regarding ICIs. RESULT: We retrospectively analyzed the 44 cases (26 nivolumab and 18 pembrolizumab cases). These patients were 38 men and 6 women, comprising 13 cases of adenocarcinoma, 29 squamous cell carcinoma and 2 unclassified types. Seven patients were using first-line therapy and while the others were using second-line therapy or later. Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutation and anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) mutations were negative in all the cases. The response rate and disease control rate were 20.5% and 51.3%, respectively. The median progression-free survival time and median survival time were 146 days and 257 days, respectively. We observed five severe adverse effects (AEs) (three cases of interstitial pneumonia, one of liver dysfunction and one of adrenal failure), that were resolved by steroid pulse therapy. In multivariate analyses, the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status (ECOG PS), pathological type, standardized uptake value (SUV) on positron emission tomography (PET), white blood cell (WBC) count, neutrophil, neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) and albumin were independently prognostic factors. There were no significant differences in the prognosis between nivolumab and pembrolizumab. CONCLUSIONS: ICIs were effective in 44 treated NSCLC cases. Our analysis suggests that while ICIs are effective in treating patients, candidates must be carefully selected and cautiously observed.