Clinical efficacy and safety of anti PD-1/PD-L1 antibodies as monotherapy in patients with non-small-cell lung cancer

To evaluate the efficacy and safety of anti-PD-1 and anti-PD-L1 immunotherapy agents as monotherapy in patients with non-small cell lung cancer. This was a four-year retrospective observational study that included all patients with non-small cell lung cancer treated with nivolumab, pembrolizumab, and atezolizumab in a third level hospital. Demographic, clinical (ECOG status, stage, PD-L1 expression level), therapeutic (drug, start date, line of treatment and number of cycles), efficacy (date and status at the end of follow-up) and toxicity variables were collected. Data was extracted from the patient's electronic medical record. Overall survival and progression-free survival rates for different monitoring times were calculated. The study included 80 patients, 35 on nivolumab, 32 on pembrolizumab and 13 on atezolizumab. The median overall survival was not achieved. Overall survival at 6, 12, 18 and 49 months in patients treated with nivolumab was 79.7%, 74.0%, 65.8% and 65.8%, respectively. Median progression-free survival was 15 months. Adverse events were observed in 85.7% of cases, the most common being asthenia (45.7%), hypothyroidism (25.7%) and cough (20.0%). For pembrolizumab, the overall survival rate at the end of follow-up for first- and second-line treatment was 100% and 70.9%, respectively. Median progression-free survival was 17 months in the first-line and 24 months in the second-line setting. Adverse events were observed in 84.4% of subjects, the most common ones being dyspnea (31.3%), arthralgia (28.1%) and asthenia (25.0%). The overall survival rate from 3 to 7 months remained at 75.8% for atezolizumab. Median progression-free survival could not be determined. At 3 and 6 months, 49.5% of subjects had made some progress. The most frequent adverse events included toxicity (69.2%), asthenia (30.8%), and cough, dyspnea, and skin toxicity (15.4% each). Subjects showed a trend toward stabilization and chronification of the disease. A positive and considerable survival rate was observed, as compared with previous studies. Further studies are required with larger sample sizes and longer follow-up times to confirm these findings.