SynthesisThoracic cancer2021
Anti-PD1 versus anti-PD-L1 immunotherapy in first-line therapy for advanced non-small cell lung cancer: A systematic review and meta-analysis.
Synthesis in Thoracic cancer, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 24 papers, 5 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
24 citing papers in PubMed, 5 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 34 citations in OpenAlex.
- Sex-based responses to immunotherapy in esophageal cancer: insights from a meta-analysis.BMC gastroenterology · 2026Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Racial/ethnic differences in survival and treatment response with PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors in resectable non-small cell lung cancer: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.European journal of clinical pharmacology · 2025Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Anti-PD1 versus anti-PD-L1 immunotherapy in first-line therapy for advanced non-small cell lung cancer: A systematic review and meta-analysis.Thoracic cancer · 2021Pooled it
- All-trans retinoic acid suppresses CD8Signal transduction and targeted therapy · 2026Article
- "What really works for us?" exploring therapeutic strategies for non-small cell lung cancer: an umbrella review of systematic reviews and meta-analyses.Clinical & translational oncology : official publication of the Federation of Spanish Oncology Societies and of the National Cancer Institute of Mexico · 2026Review
- Genomic insights on lung cancer risk: identifying new variants in Amazonian indigenous populations.Clinical & translational oncology : official publication of the Federation of Spanish Oncology Societies and of the National Cancer Institute of Mexico · 2026Article
- Article
- Real-World Effectiveness of Racotumomab as Maintenance Therapy in Advanced Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer Patients.Vaccines · 2025Article
- Comprehensive analysis of KRT18 as a novel prognostic biomarker and potential target in lung adenocarcinoma.Clinical and experimental medicine · 2025Article
- Timely administration of drug combination improves chemoimmunotherapy of an immune-cold tumor.Journal of controlled release : official journal of the Controlled Release Society · 2025Article
- Article
- Current knowledge about immunotherapy resistance for melanoma and potential predictive and prognostic biomarkers.Cancer drug resistance (Alhambra, Calif.) · 2024Review
- Checkpoint based immunotherapy in non-small cell lung cancer: a real-world retrospective study.Frontiers in immunology · 2024Article
- Agonistic Bivalent Human scFvs-Fcγ Fusion Antibodies to OX40 Ectodomain Enhance T Cell Activities against Cancer.Vaccines · 2023Article
- Review
- Concurrent/sequential versus sequential immune checkpoint inhibition in inoperable large stage III non-small cell lung cancer patients treated with chemoradiotherapy: a prospective observational study.Journal of cancer research and clinical oncology · 2023Observational
- Generation of NK cells with chimeric-switch receptors to overcome PD1-mediated inhibition in cancer immunotherapy.Cancer immunology, immunotherapy : CII · 2023Article
- Disrupting cancer angiogenesis and immune checkpoint networks for improved tumor immunity.Seminars in cancer biology · 2022Review
Corrections and comments
- Commented on by
Authors and funding
3 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundDue to the increasing number of trials with immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) in the first-line therapy of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients, we performed a systematic review and meta-analyses to investigate the difference between anti PD-1 and PD-L1 antibodies, used alone or in combination with chemotherapy, through adjusted indirect analysis to minimize the potential bias regarding overall survival (OS), progression-free survival (PFS), overall response rate (ORR) and grade 3-5 adverse events (AEs).
methodsA systematic review of studies reporting clinical outcomes and toxicity associated with first-line therapy employing anti-PD1 or anti-PD-L1 antibodies alone, or in combination with chemotherapy, to treat metastatic, treatment-naïve NSCLC patients was performed. Primary outcomes were OS, PFS, ORR and grade 3-5 AEs. We used a random-effects model to generate pooled estimates for proportions. Meta-analyses using pooled risk ratios were performed for binary outcomes from comparative studies with the random effects model.
resultsA total of 13 eligible studies met our eligibility criteria, including 7673 patients. In the ICI-chemotherapy combination subgroup, we observed that anti-PD1 therapy was associated with better OS (p = 0.022) and PFS (p = 0.029) compared with anti-PD-L1 therapy. In the monotherapy subgroup, there was no statistical difference between the use of anti-PD-1 and anti-PD-L1 for OS and PFS. With regard to ORR and toxicity, in the ICI-chemotherapy combination subgroup, we observed a trend of better ORR (p = 0.12) with the use of anti-PD1 therapy and less frequent grade 3-5 AEs compared to the use of anti-PD-L1 therapy (p = 0.0302). In the monotherapy subgroup, there was no statistical difference between the use of anti-PD-1 and anti-PD-L1 regarding ORR and toxicity.
conclusionsOur study suggests that PD-1 drug plus chemotherapy is superior to anti-PD-L1 plus chemotherapy for NSCLC; nevertheless, as monotherapy, both strategies appear to be similar.
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.