Study Reports Upside to Adverse Events With Nivolumab Treatment of NSCLC
Posted: Friday, August 24, 2018
Patients with advanced non–small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who develop immune-related adverse events when treated with nivolumab monotherapy are also the ones most likely to respond to the monoclonal antibody, according to the results of a retrospective study published in The Oncologist. Interestingly, the team of Japanese authors, all ofSendai Kousei Hospital, found that the other independent predictor of response to nivolumab monotherapy was preexisting antithyroid antibody (defined as the presence of either antithyroglobulin or antithyroid peroxidase antibody).
Corresponding author Shunichi Sugawara, MD, PhD, and colleagues found that in the group of 70 patients they studied who had received the therapy at their institution, the objective response rate was 57% in those who had immune-related adverse events versus 12% in those who did not. The median progression‐free survival was 12.0 months in those who experienced immune-related adverse events versus 3.6 months in those who did not.
The results suggest that “cautious management of immune-related adverse events can lead to achieving maximum clinical benefit from nivolumab monotherapy,” which targets the PD-1 pathway, concluded Dr. Sugawara and his team. Also, they wrote, their findings add to the literature and “may provide important insights into the immunobiology of PD-1 and autoimmunity in general.”
