Safety and efficacy outcomes of early cessation of anti-PD1 therapy in patients 80 years or older: A retrospective cohort study

• Published in: Cancer letters 2024-08, Vol.596, p.217001, Article 217001
• Main Authors: Fletcher, Kylie, Cortellini, Alessio, Ganta, Teja, Kankaria, Roma, Song, Haocan, Ye, Fei, Irlmeier, Rebecca, Debnath, Neha, Saeed, Anwaar, Radford, Maluki, Alahmadi, Asrar, Diamond, Akiva, Hoimes, Christopher, Presley, Carolyn J., Owen, Dwight H., Abou Alaiwi, Sarah, Nassar, Amin H., Lamberti, Giuseppe, Perrone, Fabiana, Buti, Sebastiano, Giusti, Raffaele, Filetti, Marco, Vanella, Vito, Mallardo, Domenico, Sussman, Tamara A., Galetta, Domenico, Kalofonou, Foteini, Daniels, Ella, Ascierto, Paolo A., Pinato, David J., Nebhan, Caroline, Berg, Stephanie, Choueiri, Toni K., Marron, Thomas U., Wang, Yinghong, Naqash, Abdul Rafeh, Johnson, Douglas B.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Anti-PD-1 therapy; Carcinoma, Non-Small-Cell Lung - drug therapy; Carcinoma, Non-Small-Cell Lung - immunology; Carcinoma, Non-Small-Cell Lung - mortality; Carcinoma, Non-Small-Cell Lung - pathology; Carcinoma, Renal Cell - drug therapy; Carcinoma, Renal Cell - immunology; Carcinoma, Renal Cell - mortality; Carcinoma, Renal Cell - pathology; Female; Geriatric population; Humans; Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors - adverse effects; Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors - therapeutic use; Immune-related adverse events; Immunotherapy; Lung Neoplasms - drug therapy; Lung Neoplasms - immunology; Lung Neoplasms - mortality; Lung Neoplasms - pathology; Male; Melanoma; Melanoma - drug therapy; Melanoma - immunology; Melanoma - mortality; Melanoma - pathology; Neoplasms - drug therapy; Neoplasms - immunology; Neoplasms - mortality; Programmed Cell Death 1 Receptor - antagonists & inhibitors; Progression-Free Survival; Retrospective Studies; Time Factors; Treatment Outcome; Withholding Treatment - statistics & numerical data
• ISSN: 0304-3835; 1872-7980; 1872-7980
• DOI: 10.1016/j.canlet.2024.217001

Older patients have similar immune checkpoint inhibitor efficacy and rates of adverse events as younger patients, but appear to have decreased tolerability, particularly in the oldest patient cohort (>80 years), often leading to early cessation of therapy. We aimed to determine whether early discontinuation impacts efficacy of anti-PD-1 therapy in patients ≥80 years old. In this retrospective, multicenter, international cohort study, we examined 773 patients with 4 tumor types who were at least 80 years old and treated with anti-PD-1 therapy. We determined response rate, overall survival (OS), and progression-free survival (PFS) in patients who discontinued therapy early (