J Cancer 2018; 9(7):1200-1206. doi:10.7150/jca.22361 This issue Cite
Research Paper
1. Department of Oncology, Zigong NO.4 People's Hospital, Zigong, Sichuan Province, 643000, People's Republic of China.
2. Department of Medical Oncology, Jiangxi Cancer Hospital, Nanchang, Jiangxi Province, 330029, People's Republic of China.
3. Department of Radiation Oncology, Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center, People's Republic of China.
*Wei You and Mei Liu contributed equally to this work.
Background: This network meta-analysis aimed at comparing anti-programmed death 1 (anti-PD-1) with anti-programmed death ligand 1(anti-PD-L1) immunotherapy in patients with metastatic, previously treated non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who failed first-line treatment.
Methods: We searched electronic databases to identify all eligible clinical trials. End-points included overall survival (OS), progression-free survival (PFS) and objective response. Hazard ratios (HRs) or odds ratios (ORs) and corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were extracted. Network meta-analysis was performed using the frequentist approach for multiple treatment comparisons.
Results: In total, 3024 patients were randomly assigned: 1117 received anti-PD-1 therapy (nivolumab + pembrolizumab), 569 received anti-PD-L1 (atezolizumab) and 1338 received docetaxel. Anti-PD-1 (HR, 0.56; 95% CI, 0.48-0.66) and anti-PD-L1 (HR, 0.64; 95% CI, 0.51-0.79) achieved better OS than docetaxel, and anti-PD-1 was superior to docetaxel in terms of PFS (HR, 0.75; 95% CI, 0.62-0.89). Moreover, anti-PD-1 achieved the highest effect on OS and PFS, with a P-score of 91.2% and 95.5%, respectively. With regard to tumor response, anti-PD-1 group had a higher rate of responders than that in anti-PD-L1 (HR, 0.35; 95% CI, 0.19-0.65) and docetaxel (HR, 0.36; 95% CI, 0.25-0.52) groups. Undoubtedly, anti-PD-1 and anti-PD-L1 obtained less toxicity profile than docetaxel, and no significant difference was observed between anti-PD-1 and anti-PD-L1 groups.
Conclusions: Anti-PD-1 may be a better choice for patients with metastatic and previously treated NSCLC who failed first-line treatment in terms of the treatment ranking.
Keywords: Non-small cell lung cancer, PD-1, PD-L1, immunotherapy, Nivolumab.