Peripheral blood markers predictive of outcome and immune-related adverse events in advanced non-small cell lung cancer treated with PD-1 inhibitors

• Published in: Cancer Immunology, Immunotherapy Immunotherapy, 2020-09, Vol.69 (9), p.1813-1822
• Main Authors: Peng, Lihong, Wang, Yong, Liu, Fen, Qiu, Xiaotong, Zhang, Xinwei, Fang, Chen, Qian, Xiaoyin, Li, Yong
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Antineoplastic Agents - immunology; Antineoplastic Agents - therapeutic use; Apoptosis; Biomarkers, Tumor - blood; Cancer Research; Carcinoma, Non-Small-Cell Lung - blood; Carcinoma, Non-Small-Cell Lung - drug therapy; Carcinoma, Non-Small-Cell Lung - immunology; Cell death; Female; Humans; Immune checkpoint inhibitors; Immunology; Immunotherapy; Immunotherapy - methods; L-Lactate dehydrogenase; Lactic acid; Lung cancer; Lung Neoplasms - blood; Lung Neoplasms - drug therapy; Lung Neoplasms - immunology; Lymphocyte Count - methods; Lymphocytes; Lymphocytes - drug effects; Lymphocytes - immunology; Male; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Middle Aged; Multivariate analysis; Neutrophils - drug effects; Neutrophils - immunology; Non-small cell lung carcinoma; Oncology; Original; Original Article; Patients; PD-1 protein; Peripheral blood; Prognosis; Programmed Cell Death 1 Receptor - antagonists & inhibitors; Progression-Free Survival; Regression analysis; Retrospective Studies; Small cell lung carcinoma; Treatment Outcome
• ISSN: 0340-7004; 1432-0851
• DOI: 10.1007/s00262-020-02585-w

Background Selected patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) benefit from immunotherapy, especially immune checkpoint inhibitors such as PD-1 (programmed cell death protein 1) inhibitor. Peripheral blood biomarkers would be most convenient to predict treatment outcome and immune-related adverse events (irAEs) in candidate patients. This study explored associations between inflammation-related peripheral blood markers and onset of irAEs and outcome in patients with advanced NSCLC receiving PD-1 inhibitors. Methods A retrospective analysis was conducted of 102 patients with advanced NSCLC receiving PD-1 inhibitors from January 2017 to May 2019. Cox regression models were employed to assess the prognostic effect of low/high neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio (NLR), lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), and prognostic nutrition index (PNI) on overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS). Logistic regression models were used to analyze the correlation between peripheral blood markers and the onset of irAEs. Result NLR