Key clinical point : Noncachexic patients with advanced nonsmall cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and adipose tissue loss may respond more favorably to immunotherapy.
Major finding : Cachexic patients with loss and maintenance of adipose tissue showed no significant differences in the objective response rate (ORR) and progression-free survival (PFS). Noncachexic patients with loss vs maintenance of adipose tissue demonstrated a higher ORR (64.7% vs 23.5%; P < .05) and longer PFS (18.5 vs 2.86 months; P = .037) in response to immunotherapy.
Study details : The data come from a single-center retrospective cohort study involving patients with advanced NSCLC (40 with cachexia and 34 without cachexia) who received programmed cell death-1/programmed cell death-ligand 1 inhibitors (pembrolizumab, nivolumab, or atezolizumab).
Disclosures: The study was funded by the Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development. The authors reported ties with one or more pharmaceutical companies outside this work.
Source: Nishioka N et al. Impact of losing adipose tissue on outcomes from PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitor monotherapy in non-small cell lung cancer. Thorac Cancer. 2022;13(10):1496-1504 (Apr 14). Doi: 10.1111/1759-7714.14421