Internal medicine

Hazard ratio

Immunotherapy

Overall survival

Gastroenterology

Cancer

Oncology

Lung

Lung cancer

Performance status

Pneumonitis

Nivolumab

Confidence interval

Medicine

Journal of Cancer

Background: Nivolumab efficacy in patients with non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and performance status (PS) of 2-4 is unclear.We aimed to compare survival, treatment efficacy, and safety in patients with NSCLC with poor PS who received nivolumab plus best supportive care (BSC) with those in patients who received BSC alone in a palliative care unit (PCU).Patients and methods: This retrospective study included 99 consecutive patients with NSCLC who received nivolumab plus BSC or BSC alone between December 2015 and March 2018.Results: In total, 43 patients with PS of 0-1 (good PS group) and 20 patients with PS of 2-4 (poor PS group) received nivolumab plus BSC; the remaining 36 patients received BSC alone in the PCU (PC group).Median overall survival was 32 days [95% confidence interval (CI), 21-43] in the poor PS group and 31 days (95% CI, 25-37) in the PC group (hazard ratio, 0.653; 95% CI, 0.368-1.158;P = 0.137).Moreover, median overall survival in patients with PS of 3 or 4 among the poor PS group was not significantly longer than that in the PC group (HR, 1.235; 95% CI, 0.646-2.360;P = 0.516).The frequency of severe pneumonitis in the poor PS group was significantly higher than that in the good PS group (25% vs. 2%, P = 0.010).Conclusion: Survival benefit of nivolumab in patients with NSCLC with poor PS, especially 3 or 4, was not confirmed.Further studies with larger numbers of patients are required to confirm our results.

Efficacy and Safety of Nivolumab in Patients with Advanced Non-small-cell Lung Cancer and Poor Performance Status