SITC 2021 | Clinical outcomes of immunotherapy after radiographic progression in advanced NSCLC

Eric K. Singhi, MD, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, comments on the rationale and results from a retrospective study investigating the safety and clinical outcomes of immunotherapy continued beyond radiographic progression in older adults (over 70 years old) with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). This study enrolled 33 patients who had received anti-PD-1 or anti-PD-L1 monotherapy for at least eight weeks before disease progression and who continued receiving immunotherapy for at least six weeks after progression because they were still deriving therapeutic benefit. The median duration of immunotherapy continued beyond first radiographic progression was seven months and the median overall survival (OS) was 31.5 months. It is important to note that approximately 25% of patients were also receiving local consolidative radiotherapy and 18% of patients were identified as pseudo-progressors. Furthermore, this study showed that immunotherapy was well-tolerated in older patients, with only 3 cases of grade 3/4 treatment-related toxicities. In the future, it is critical to identify biomarkers that can help select patients who are most likely to benefit from immunotherapy beyond radiographic progression. This interview took place during the 36th Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C.