Immune-Related Adverse Events Due to Checkpoint Inhibition Are More Common in Melanoma Than in NSCLC
Source: Cancer Therapy Advisor, November 2018
More patients with melanoma who were treated with either nivolumab or pembrolizumab developed immune-related adverse events (irAEs) compared with patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) treated with these same checkpoint inhibitors, suggesting differences in these events across groups. However, more studies will be needed to determine whether the association between irAEs and cancer type is related to tumor characteristics, differences in the anti-PD-1 agent used, or other factors.
These data will be presented as a poster during the 2018 ESMO Congress in Munich, Germany.1
According to the abstract, irAEs are a treatment challenge of immunotherapies that could potentially limit their clinical benefit. In this study, researchers examined the occurrence of irAEs related to treatment with an anti-PD-1 drug — nivolumab or pembrolizumab — seen in 266 patients with melanoma compared with those observed in 244 patients with NSCLC. All of the subjects were treated at the Mayo Clinic in either Rochester, Minnesota, or Jacksonville, Florida, from 2015 to 2018.