Pembrolizumab prolongs real-world survival in NSCLC patients

Pembrolizumab prolongs survival among NSCLC patients in real world

Treatment with pembrolizumab demonstrates effectiveness in improving progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) in real clinical practice, results of a study have shown.

In addition, digestive toxicities are the most common adverse events (AEs) associated with pembrolizumab monotherapy and with chemotherapy.

This retrospective study included 50 patients with metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who had been treated with pembrolizumab in the first-line setting between 1 June 2018 and 31 January 2021. The investigators collected variables related to the patients, treatment, and efficacy and safety of the drug.

Patients who received pembrolizumab monotherapy achieved a median real-world PFS of 10.5 months (95 percent confidence interval [CI], 2.3‒18.6) and a real-world OS of 18.9 months (95 percent CI, 16.9‒20.8). For those who received the study drug with chemotherapy, the median real-world PFS and OS were 7.9 months (95 percent CI, 4.1‒11.7) and 13.3 months (95 percent CI, 0.0‒27), respectively.

The most frequently detected AEs were digestive (48.3 percent) and endocrine (41.4 percent) immune-related AEs among patients treated with pembrolizumab monotherapy, while those observed in the pembrolizumab plus chemotherapy group were digestive immune-related AEs (85.7 percent) and haematological toxicities (71.5 percent).

“Pembrolizumab is currently the drug for the first-line treatment of stage-IV NSCLC,” according to the investigators.