ArticleJournal of cancer research and clinical oncology2023
The role of immune checkpoint inhibitors in clinical practice: an analysis of the treatment patterns, survival and toxicity rates by sex.
Article in Journal of cancer research and clinical oncology, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 15 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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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.
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Who cites it
15 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 21 citations in OpenAlex.
- Sex, Timing, and Outcomes of Curative-Intent Immunotherapy: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.JAMA network open · 2026Pooled it
- A systematic review of sex and gender differences in treatment outcome of inflammatory skin diseases: Is it time for new guidelines?Journal of the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology : JEADV · 2025Pooled it
- The Use and Utility of Adjuvant Checkpoint Inhibitors in Elderly Patients with Melanoma: A Single Institution Experience.Cancers · 2026Article
- MRI of combination immunotherapy in an epithelial ovarian cancer preclinical model.Npj imaging · 2026Article
- Rheumatic immune-related adverse effects of immune checkpoint treatment: a retrospective multicentre study.Scientific reports · 2026Observational
- Sex-Related Differences in Immunotherapy Toxicities: Insights into Dimorphic Responses.Cancers · 2025Review
- Review
- Chrono-immunotherapy as a low-hanging fruit for cancer treatment? A call for pragmatic randomized clinical trials.Journal for immunotherapy of cancer · 2025Review
- Novel Therapeutic Approach Targeting CXCR3 to Treat Immunotherapy Myocarditis.Circulation research · 2025Article
- Immune-Mediated Liver Injury From Checkpoint Inhibitor: An Evolving Frontier With Emerging Challenges.Liver international : official journal of the International Association for the Study of the Liver · 2025Review
- Effects of sex and obesity on immune checkpoint inhibition-related cardiac systolic dysfunction in aged mice.Basic research in cardiology · 2025Article
- Health impact of using anti-PD-(L)1 agents to treat early-stage cancers in Switzerland: a modeling study.Frontiers in immunology · 2025Article
- Predictors of severity and onset timing of immune-related adverse events in cancer patients receiving immune checkpoint inhibitors: a retrospective analysis.Frontiers in immunology · 2025Article
- Toxicity, disease management and outcome of treatment with immune checkpoint inhibitors by sex in patients with cancer and preexisting autoimmune disease.Oncology letters · 2023Article
- Multidisciplinary recommendations for essential baseline functional and laboratory tests to facilitate early diagnosis and management of immune-related adverse events among cancer patients.Cancer immunology, immunotherapy : CII · 2023Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
12 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
purposeOur aim is to describe the role of immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI) in clinical practice by providing the patient and tumor characteristics as well as survival and toxicity rates by sex.
methodsWe used electronic health records to identify patients treated at the Cancer Center of the University Hospital Bern, Switzerland between January 1, 2017 and June 16, 2021.
resultsWe identified 5109 patients, 689 of whom (13.5%) received at least one dose of ICI. The fraction of patients who were prescribed ICI increased from 8.6% in 2017 to 22.9% in 2021. ICI represented 13.2% of the anticancer treatments in 2017 and increased to 28.2% in 2021. The majority of patients were male (68.7%), who were older than the female patients (median age 67 vs. 61 years). Over time, adjuvant and first line treatments increased for both sexes. Lung cancer and melanoma were the most common cancer types in males and females. The incidence of irAEs was higher among females (38.4% vs. 28.1%) and lead more often to treatment discontination in females than in males (21.1% vs. 16.8%). Independent of sex, the occurrence of irAEs was associated with greater median overall survival (OS, not reached vs. 1.1 years). Female patients had a longer median OS than males (1.9 vs. 1.5 years).
conclusionsICI play an increasingly important role in oncology. irAEs are more frequent in female patients and are associated with a longer OS. More research is needed to understand the association between patient sex and toxicity and survival.
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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.