• Chiao-En Wu, Chan-Keng Yang, Meng-Ting Peng, Pei-Wei Huang, Ching-Fu Chang, Kun-Yun Yeh, Chun-Bing Chen, Chih-Liang Wang, Chao-Wei Hsu, I-Wen Chen, Cheng-Tao Lin, Shir-Hwa Ueng, Gigin Lin, Yu-Fen Lin, Chi-Yuan Cheng, and John Wen-Cheng Chang.
• Division of Haematology-Oncology, Department of Internal Medicine, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Linkou, Taiwan. jiaoen@gmail.com.
• Bmc Cancer. 2020 Oct 21; 20 (1): 1018.

BackgroundThe association between immune-related adverse events (irAEs) and survival outcomes in patients with advanced melanoma receiving therapy with immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) has not been well established, particularly in Asian melanoma.MethodsWe retrospectively reviewed 49 melanoma patients undergoing therapy with ICIs (anti-PD-1 monotherapy), and analyzed the correlation between irAEs and clinical outcomes including progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS).ResultsOverall, the patients who experienced grade 1-2 irAEs had longer PFS (median PFS, 4.6 vs. 2.5 months; HR, 0.52; 95% CI: 0.27-0.98; p = 0.042) and OS (median OS, 15.2 vs. 5.7 months; HR, 0.50; 95% CI: 0.24-1.02; p = 0.058) than the patients who did not experience irAEs. Regarding the type of irAE, the patients with either skin/vitiligo or endocrine irAEs showed better PFS (median PFS, 6.1 vs. 2.7 months; HR, 0.40, 95% CI: 0.21-0.74; p = 0.003) and OS (median OS, 18.7 vs. 4.5 months; HR, 0.34, 95% CI: 0.17-0.69, p = 0.003) than patients without any of these irAEs.ConclusionsMelanoma patients undergoing anti-PD-1 monotherapy and experiencing mild-to-moderate irAEs (grade 1-2), particularly skin (vitiligo)/endocrine irAEs had favorable survival outcomes. Therefore, the association between irAEs and the clinical outcomes in melanoma patients undergoing anti-PD-1 ICIs may be severity and type dependent.

29 keywords...

hide…