ArticleTherapeutic advances in medical oncology2020
Efficacy of PD-1/PD-L1 blockade monotherapy in clinical trials.
Article in Therapeutic advances in medical oncology, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 114 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
114 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 219 citations in OpenAlex.
- Clinicopathological and molecular characteristics associated with pathological complete response in neoadjuvant immunotherapy for breast cancer.Frontiers in immunology · 2026Pooled it
- Associations of PD-L1 expression status, tumor histology and patient ethnic background with immunotherapy outcomes in patients with advanced esophageal cancer.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2026Pooled it
- Association between the expression status of programmed cell death ligand 1 and the efficacy of pan-cancer neoadjuvant immune checkpoint blockade.Frontiers in immunology · 2025Pooled it
- A system review of neoadjuvant immune checkpoint blockade for breast cancer.Frontiers in immunology · 2025Pooled it
- Circulating immune cell profiling in advanced cervical and endometrial cancer patients treated with PD-1 blockade, radiotherapy, and immune modulation in the PRIMMO trial.Frontiers in immunology · 2026Trial
- A Phase 1/2 study of the PD-L1 inhibitor, BGB-A333, alone and in combination with the PD-1 inhibitor, tislelizumab, in patients with advanced solid tumours.British journal of cancer · 2023Trial
- Developing neoantigen cancer vaccines: where are we now?Nature communications · 2026Review
- Peripheral T-Cell Receptor β Repertoire Dynamics Correlate with Response to Anti-PD-L1 Therapy in Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer.Cancers · 2026Article
- Heterogeneous survival impact of immune-related adverse events in US veterans.Journal for immunotherapy of cancer · 2026Article
- Pan-cancer analysis ofGenes & diseases · 2026Article
- Programmed Cell Death Protein 1-Interleukin-2 Bispecific Agents for Cancer Therapy.BioDrugs : clinical immunotherapeutics, biopharmaceuticals and gene therapy · 2026Review
- Ivonescimab and other anti-programmed death-1/ligand 1 (PD-(L)1)/vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) bispecific antibodies: progress and prospects in cancer therapy.Antibody therapeutics · 2026Review
- Mutation of rearranged during transfection (RET) is associated with enhanced tumor immunogenicity and favorable outcomes in pan-cancer immunotherapy.The oncologist · 2026Article
- Reversible control of T cell exhaustion by NR4A transcription factors revealed through targeted protein degradation.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Comparative evaluation of machine learning models for predicting PD-L1 high expression in resectable NSCLC: a dual-center study integrating [Frontiers in immunology · 2026Article
- Prognostic Value and Immunological Role of CBX7 in Lung Adenocarcinoma.Current molecular medicine · 2026Article
- Characteristics and risk factors of immune-related adverse events in patients receiving immune checkpoint inhibitor combination therapy.Frontiers in oncology · 2026Article
- BFAR Promotes Neutrophil Infiltration and Immunosuppressive Reprogramming through the PRP19-YBX1 Axis to Induce Immune Evasion in Gastric Cancer.Cancer immunology research · 2025Article
- IL7-TBRII, a Dual Cytokine Modulator Targeting IL-7 and TGF-β Pathways, Inhibits Tumor Progression and Metastasis.Immune network · 2025Article
- Immune checkpoint inhibitor-related arthritis and oral disorders: shared pathophysiology and clinical implications for rheumatology and oral health.Cancer cell international · 2025Review
54 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
3 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundInhibitors targeting programmed cell death 1 (PD-1) and programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) have unprecedented effects in cancer treatment. However, the objective response rates (ORRs), progression-free survival (PFS), and overall survival (OS) of PD-1/PD-L1 blockade monotherapy have not been systematically evaluated.
methodsWe searched Embase, PubMed, and Cochrane database from inception to July 2019 for prospective clinical trials on single-agent PD-1/PD-L1 antibodies (avelumab, atezolizumab, durvalumab, cemiplimab, pembrolizumab, and nivolumab) with information regarding ORR, PFS, and OS.
resultsTotally, 28,304 patients from 160 perspective trials were included. Overall, 4747 responses occurred in 22,165 patients treated with PD-1/PD-L1 monotherapy [ORR, 20.21%; 95% confidence interval (CI), 18.34-22.15%]. Compared with conventional therapy, PD-1/PD-L1 blockade immunotherapy was associated with more tumor responses (odds ratio, 1.98; 95% CI, 1.52-2.57) and better OS [hazard ratio (HR), 0.75; 95% CI, 0.67-0.83]. The ORRs varied significantly across cancer types and PD-L1 expression status. Line of treatment, clinical phase and drug target also impacted the response rates in some tumors. A total of 2313 of 9494 PD-L1 positive patients (ORR, 24.39%; 95% CI, 22.29-26.54%) and 456 of 4215 PD-L1 negative patients (ORR, 10.34%; 95% CI, 8.67-12.14%) achieved responses. For PD-L1 negative patients, the ORR (odds ratio, 0.92; 95% CI, 0.70-1.20) and PFS (HR, 1.15; 95% CI, 0.87-1.51) associated with immunotherapy and conventional treatment were similar. However, PD-1/PD-L1 blockade monotherapy decreased the risk of death in both PD-L1 positive (HR, 0.66; 95% CI, 0.60-0.72) and PD-L1 negative (HR, 0.86; 95% CI, 0.74-0.99) patients compared with conventional therapy.
conclusionThe efficacies associated with PD-1/PD-L1 monotherapy vary significantly across cancer types and PD-L1 expression. This comprehensive summary of clinical benefit from immunotherapy in cancer patients provides an important guide for clinicians.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
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.