No Difference in Overall Survival Between Immunotherapy Treatment Lengths Among Patients With Advanced NSCLC
Results from a retrospective, population-based cohort study demonstrated that patients with non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who discontinued immunotherapy at 2 years had a statistically similar overall survival as those patients who continued immunotherapy indefinitely.
This study included data from patients in a clinical database who were diagnosed with advanced NSCLC from 2016 to 2020 and who received frontline immunotherapy-based treatment. Patients were classified into 2 cohorts, those who had treatment discontinued at 2 years (between 700 and 760 days, fixed duration cohort) and those who continued treatment beyond 2 years (>760 days, indefinite duration cohort). There were a total of 113 in the fixed-duration cohort and 593 patients in the indefinite-duration cohort.
Results demonstrated that 2-year overall survival from 760 days was 79% (95% confidence interval [CI], 66% to 87%) in the fixed-duration cohort and 81% (95% CI, 77% to 85%) in the indefinite-duration cohort. There was no statistically significant difference in overall survival between the 2 cohorts, either on univariate or multivariable Cox regression.
Study authors concluded “ the lack of statistically significant overall survival advantage for the indefinite-duration cohort on adjusted analysis provides reassurance to patients and clinicians who wish to discontinue immunotherapy treatment at 2 years.”
Source:
Sun L, Bleiberg B, Hwang W, et al. Association between duration of immunotherapy and overall survival in advanced non–small cell lung cancer. JAMA Oncol. Published online June 04, 2023. doi:10.1001/jamaoncol.2023.1891
