Limited information is available on the appropriate treatment duration of immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs). We aimed to identify candidates who would benefit from ICI discontinuation after one year of treatment for metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). This retrospective multi-institutional observational study examined medical records of all consecutive patients with advanced or recurrent NSCLC, who started ICI monotherapy at 15 institutions in Japan between December 2015 and December 2017. Patients who received initial ICI therapy for >1 year without progressive disease were defined as the long-term treatment (LT) group; others were defined as the non-long-term treatment (NLT) group. Primary outcomes included the prognostic factors in the LT group, whereas secondary outcomes included efficacy of ICI rechallenge, safety, and survival outcomes in the overall population. In total, 676 patients were enrolled, and 114 (16.9 %) were assigned to the LT group. The median time interval from the start of initial ICI administration to data cutoff was 34.3 months (range, 24.1–47.8); thus, all surviving patients were followed-up for at least 2 years from the start of initial ICI. Median progression-free survival (PFS) was longer in the LT than in the NLT group (33.6 months vs. 2.7 months; p < 0.001).
Reference link- https://www.lungcancerjournal.info/article/S0169-5002(21)00151-3/fulltext
