ArticleCancer immunology, immunotherapy : CII2020
Clinicopathologic correlates of first-line pembrolizumab effectiveness in patients with advanced NSCLC and a PD-L1 expression of ≥ 50.
Article in Cancer immunology, immunotherapy : CII, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 70 papers, 6 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
70 citing papers in PubMed, 6 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 88 citations in OpenAlex.
- Systematic literature review of real-world evidence on overall survival in cancer patients before and after the approval of anti-PD-(L)1 therapy.Frontiers in oncology · 2025Pooled it
- Immune-related adverse events in patients treated with immunotherapy for locally advanced or metastatic NSCLC in real-world settings: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Frontiers in oncology · 2024Pooled it
- Effect of liver metastasis on the efficacy of immune checkpoint inhibitors in cancer patients: a systemic review and meta-analysis.Clinical & experimental metastasis · 2023Pooled it
- Effectiveness and safety of pembrolizumab for patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer in real-world studies and randomized controlled trials: A systematic review and meta-analysis.Frontiers in oncology · 2023Pooled it
- Liver metastases and the efficacy of immune checkpoint inhibitors in advanced lung cancer: A systematic review and meta-analysis.Frontiers in oncology · 2022Pooled it
- Evaluation of the Lung Immune Prognostic Index in Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer Patients Treated With Systemic Therapy: A Retrospective Study and Meta-Analysis.Frontiers in oncology · 2021Pooled it
- SAKK 19/17: safety analysis of first-line durvalumab in patients with PD-L1 positive, advanced nonsmall cell lung cancer and a performance status of 2.Cancer immunology, immunotherapy : CII · 2021Trial
- Real-world data survival outcomes of first line immunotherapy with pembrolizumab in high expressers with stage IV non-small cell lung cancer.Radiology and oncology · 2026Article
- Real-world effectiveness of pembrolizumab for first-line treatment of metastatic non-small-cell lung cancer: a decade of evidence and experience.Future oncology (London, England) · 2026Review
- Bridging the Gap in Lung Cancer: Novel Biomarkers, Metabolic Drivers, and Advanced Therapeutics from Bench to Bedside.Biomedicines · 2026Article
- Breaking the immune "cold niche" in bone metastasis: core mechanisms of the multidimensional interwoven regulatory network and precision breakthrough strategies.Molecular cancer · 2026Review
- Leveraging data-driven risk-adapted surveillance strategies after disease progression in locally advanced rectal cancer.BMC cancer · 2026Article
- Real-World Outcomes of First-Line Pembrolizumab-Based Therapy in Advanced Non-Small-Cell Lung Cancer: A Retrospective Single-Center Study.Journal of clinical medicine · 2026Article
- Outcome of patients with lung cancer treated with stereotactic body radiotherapy for bone oligometastases - a European multicenter cohort study.Radiation oncology (London, England) · 2026Observational
- Clinical and Genomic Characteristics of Patients With Advanced NSCLC Who Have Long-Term Response to First-Line Immunotherapy: A Real-World Study.JTO clinical and research reports · 2026Article
- First-Line Pembrolizumab Monotherapy for Advanced Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer: A Multicenter Real-World Study from Vietnam.Current oncology (Toronto, Ont.) · 2026Article
- Impact of baseline brain metastases on survival and CNS progression in NSCLC patients treated with immune checkpoint inhibitors in real-world studies: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Translational lung cancer research · 2026Article
- Article
- First-line pembrolizumab for advanced and metastatic non-small cell lung cancer with a PD-L1 TPS ≥ 50% at a Portuguese centre.Respiratory research & clinical practice · 2026Observational
- Article
10 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
70 authors at 20 institutions in 5 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundSingle-agent pembrolizumab represents the standard first-line option for metastatic non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients with a PD-L1 (programmed death-ligand 1) expression of ≥ 50%.
methodsWe conducted a multicenter retrospective study aimed at evaluating the clinicopathologic correlates of pembrolizumab effectiveness in patients with treatment-naïve NSCLC and a PD-L1 expression of ≥ 50%.
resultsOne thousand and twenty-six consecutive patients were included. The objective response rate (ORR) was 44.5% (95% CI 40.2-49.1), while the median progression free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) were 7.9 months (95% CI 6.9-9.5; 599 events) and 17.2 months (95% CI 15.3-22.3; 598 censored patients), respectively. ECOG-PS ≥ 2 (p < 0.0001) and bone metastases (p = 0.0003) were confirmed to be independent predictors of a worse ORR. Former smokers (p = 0.0002), but not current smokers (p = 0.0532) were confirmed to have a significantly prolonged PFS compared to never smokers at multivariate analysis. ECOG-PS (p < 0.0001), bone metastases (p < 0.0001) and liver metastases (p < 0.0001) were also confirmed to be independent predictors of a worse PFS. Previous palliative RT was significantly related to a shortened OS (p = 0.0104), while previous non-palliative RT was significantly related to a prolonged OS (p = 0.0033). Former smokers (p = 0.0131), but not current smokers (p = 0.3433) were confirmed to have a significantly prolonged OS compared to never smokers. ECOG-PS (p < 0.0001), bone metastases (p < 0.0001) and liver metastases (p < 0.0001) were also confirmed to be independent predictors of a shortened OS. A PD-L1 expression of ≥ 90%, as assessed by recursive partitioning, was associated with significantly higher ORR (p = 0.0204), and longer and OS (p = 0.0346) at multivariable analysis.
conclusionPembrolizumab was effective in a large cohort of NSCLC patients treated outside of clinical trials. Questions regarding the effectiveness in clinical subgroups, such as patients with poorer PS and with liver/bone metastases, still remain to be addressed. We confirmed that the absence of tobacco exposure, and the presence of bone and liver metastasis are associated with worse clinical outcomes to pembrolizumab. Increasing levels of PD-L1 expression may help identifying a subset of patients who derive a greater benefit from pembrolizumab monotherapy.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.