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A combination of pembrolizumab and platinum chemotherapy is the most effective frontline treatment for patients with non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), according to a retrospective analysis of more than 16,000 patients.

The study showed that responses to therapy are best predicted by an aggregate of tumor mutational burden (TMB), programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1) expression, and proportion of CD8+ T-cell tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs), reported Yunfang Yu, MD, of Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China, and colleagues.

“[I]mmunotherapy has produced inconsistent results in previous randomized clinical trials,” the investigators wrote, citing inconsistent survival outcomes in CheckMate-026 and publications by Takayama and Wu. “Moreover, independent immune-related biomarkers that are currently used, such as PD-L1 and TMB, have achieved clinical relevance for a selection of patients to some extent, but to our knowledge, they are still far from clear and established.” The report is in JAMA Network Open.

To gain clarity, the investigators performed a large-scale meta-analysis (n = 14,395) and individual patient-level study (n = 1,833) involving patients with NSCLC. Data were drawn from a variety of sources, including PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane, conference proceedings, and others. Primary outcomes were median overall survival and progression-free survival. Secondary outcomes were objective response rate and durable clinical benefit. The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses (PRISMA) was used as a reporting guideline.

Analysis showed the superiority of immunotherapy to conventional therapy with significantly extended median overall survival and progression-free survival, both with an immunotherapy-favoring hazard ratio (HR) of 0.76 (P less than .001). Immunotherapy survival advantages were also reported individually for checkpoint inhibitors (HR, 0.75), tumor vaccines (HR, 0.83), and cellular immunotherapy (HR, 0.40). Of these three, checkpoint inhibitors and tumor vaccines showed superiority for progression-free survival. For first-line therapy, a combination of a pembrolizumab and chemotherapy was associated with better progression-free and overall survival than were other immunotherapies.

For patients treated with checkpoint inhibitors, higher levels of PD-L1 expression, TMB, or neo-antigen burden (NAB) were each prognostically valuable; however, the most powerful predictive tool was a combination of PD-L1 expression, TMB, and proportion of CD8+ T-cell TILs, with a 3-year overall survival area under the curve of 0.659. In addition, RYR1 and MGAM mutations were independently associated with durable clinical benefits.

“Future development of an optimized, integrated predictive model for immunotherapy should consider the integration of multiple approaches involving biomarkers associated with the T cell–inflamed tumor microenvironment, such as PD-L1 expression, ICs, and those associated with tumor neoepitope burden,” the investigators wrote.

The study was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province, and Guangzhou Science and Technology Program. The investigators disclosed no conflicts of interest.

SOURCE: Yu et al. JAMA Open. 2019 Jul 10. doi: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2019.6879.

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A combination of pembrolizumab and platinum chemotherapy is the most effective frontline treatment for patients with non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), according to a retrospective analysis of more than 16,000 patients.

The study showed that responses to therapy are best predicted by an aggregate of tumor mutational burden (TMB), programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1) expression, and proportion of CD8+ T-cell tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs), reported Yunfang Yu, MD, of Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China, and colleagues.

“[I]mmunotherapy has produced inconsistent results in previous randomized clinical trials,” the investigators wrote, citing inconsistent survival outcomes in CheckMate-026 and publications by Takayama and Wu. “Moreover, independent immune-related biomarkers that are currently used, such as PD-L1 and TMB, have achieved clinical relevance for a selection of patients to some extent, but to our knowledge, they are still far from clear and established.” The report is in JAMA Network Open.

To gain clarity, the investigators performed a large-scale meta-analysis (n = 14,395) and individual patient-level study (n = 1,833) involving patients with NSCLC. Data were drawn from a variety of sources, including PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane, conference proceedings, and others. Primary outcomes were median overall survival and progression-free survival. Secondary outcomes were objective response rate and durable clinical benefit. The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses (PRISMA) was used as a reporting guideline.

Analysis showed the superiority of immunotherapy to conventional therapy with significantly extended median overall survival and progression-free survival, both with an immunotherapy-favoring hazard ratio (HR) of 0.76 (P less than .001). Immunotherapy survival advantages were also reported individually for checkpoint inhibitors (HR, 0.75), tumor vaccines (HR, 0.83), and cellular immunotherapy (HR, 0.40). Of these three, checkpoint inhibitors and tumor vaccines showed superiority for progression-free survival. For first-line therapy, a combination of a pembrolizumab and chemotherapy was associated with better progression-free and overall survival than were other immunotherapies.

For patients treated with checkpoint inhibitors, higher levels of PD-L1 expression, TMB, or neo-antigen burden (NAB) were each prognostically valuable; however, the most powerful predictive tool was a combination of PD-L1 expression, TMB, and proportion of CD8+ T-cell TILs, with a 3-year overall survival area under the curve of 0.659. In addition, RYR1 and MGAM mutations were independently associated with durable clinical benefits.

“Future development of an optimized, integrated predictive model for immunotherapy should consider the integration of multiple approaches involving biomarkers associated with the T cell–inflamed tumor microenvironment, such as PD-L1 expression, ICs, and those associated with tumor neoepitope burden,” the investigators wrote.

The study was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province, and Guangzhou Science and Technology Program. The investigators disclosed no conflicts of interest.

SOURCE: Yu et al. JAMA Open. 2019 Jul 10. doi: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2019.6879.

A combination of pembrolizumab and platinum chemotherapy is the most effective frontline treatment for patients with non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), according to a retrospective analysis of more than 16,000 patients.

The study showed that responses to therapy are best predicted by an aggregate of tumor mutational burden (TMB), programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1) expression, and proportion of CD8+ T-cell tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs), reported Yunfang Yu, MD, of Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China, and colleagues.

“[I]mmunotherapy has produced inconsistent results in previous randomized clinical trials,” the investigators wrote, citing inconsistent survival outcomes in CheckMate-026 and publications by Takayama and Wu. “Moreover, independent immune-related biomarkers that are currently used, such as PD-L1 and TMB, have achieved clinical relevance for a selection of patients to some extent, but to our knowledge, they are still far from clear and established.” The report is in JAMA Network Open.

To gain clarity, the investigators performed a large-scale meta-analysis (n = 14,395) and individual patient-level study (n = 1,833) involving patients with NSCLC. Data were drawn from a variety of sources, including PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane, conference proceedings, and others. Primary outcomes were median overall survival and progression-free survival. Secondary outcomes were objective response rate and durable clinical benefit. The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses (PRISMA) was used as a reporting guideline.

Analysis showed the superiority of immunotherapy to conventional therapy with significantly extended median overall survival and progression-free survival, both with an immunotherapy-favoring hazard ratio (HR) of 0.76 (P less than .001). Immunotherapy survival advantages were also reported individually for checkpoint inhibitors (HR, 0.75), tumor vaccines (HR, 0.83), and cellular immunotherapy (HR, 0.40). Of these three, checkpoint inhibitors and tumor vaccines showed superiority for progression-free survival. For first-line therapy, a combination of a pembrolizumab and chemotherapy was associated with better progression-free and overall survival than were other immunotherapies.

For patients treated with checkpoint inhibitors, higher levels of PD-L1 expression, TMB, or neo-antigen burden (NAB) were each prognostically valuable; however, the most powerful predictive tool was a combination of PD-L1 expression, TMB, and proportion of CD8+ T-cell TILs, with a 3-year overall survival area under the curve of 0.659. In addition, RYR1 and MGAM mutations were independently associated with durable clinical benefits.

“Future development of an optimized, integrated predictive model for immunotherapy should consider the integration of multiple approaches involving biomarkers associated with the T cell–inflamed tumor microenvironment, such as PD-L1 expression, ICs, and those associated with tumor neoepitope burden,” the investigators wrote.

The study was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province, and Guangzhou Science and Technology Program. The investigators disclosed no conflicts of interest.

SOURCE: Yu et al. JAMA Open. 2019 Jul 10. doi: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2019.6879.

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