Evaluating the effect of brain metastases status on immunotherapy effectiveness in advanced lung cancer.

This study evaluated the effect of brain metastases (BMs) status on immunotherapy effectiveness in patients with advanced lung cancer (LC). The data showed that the effectiveness of immunotherapy was similar in patients with or without BMs.

In 20-40% of patients with advanced LC, cancer spreads from the lung to the brain (brain metastases, BM). This can lead to a decreased quality of life and reduced survival. The standard of care (SOC) treatment options like chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and surgery and not effective for advanced LC with BM. Thus, new effective therapies to improve the outcomes of BMs patients in advanced LC are required.

Immunotherapy has been found to be effective in advanced LC. Immune checkpoint inhibitors are a type of immunotherapy used to treat a wide variety of cancers. Pembrolizumab (Keytruda) and nivolumab (Opdivo) are ICIs that prevent the immune system from switching off. This allows the immune system to target and kill cancer cells. However, there are few studies evaluating the effect of BMs on immunotherapy effectiveness in patients with advanced LC.

This study analyzed 14 studies involving 9089 patients. The patients were divided into 2 groups. Group 1 included 1051 patients with BM. Group 2 included 8038 patients without BM.

In group 1, immunotherapy was associated with a 28% higher chance of survival compared to those who received SOC therapies. In group 2, immunotherapy was associated with a 24% higher chance of survival compared to those who received SOC therapies.

For both groups, patients who were treated with immunotherapy were 32% more likely to survive without cancer worsening than those who were treated without immunotherapy.

There were no significant differences in terms of overall survival and survival without cancer progression between the 2 groups.

This study concluded that the effectiveness of immunotherapy was similar in patients with LC with or without BMs.

This study did not evaluate patients with symptoms and/or untreated BM.