Treating Japanese Patients With Pembrolizumab for
Platinum-Refractory Advanced Urothelial Carcinoma in Real-World Clinical Practice.
J Clin Med Res 2020;
12:300-306. [PMID:
32489505 PMCID:
PMC7239584 DOI:
10.14740/jocmr4162]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/10/2020] [Accepted: 04/21/2020] [Indexed: 02/06/2023] Open
Abstract
Background
Since December 2017, pembrolizumab has been approved in Japan as a second-line treatment for radical unresectable urothelial carcinoma (UC) that has become exacerbated after chemotherapy by the international randomized phase 3 trial, KEYNOTE-045. The aim of this study was to evaluate the oncological efficacy and safety of pembrolizumab after failure of platinum-based chemotherapy in Japanese patients with advanced UC in real-world clinical practice.
Methods
A total of 34 patients who received pembrolizumab after the failure of platinum-based chemotherapy for advanced urothelial carcinoma at four institutions between January 2018 and August 2019 were retrospectively evaluated. In all patients, UC was histopathologically diagnosed, and disease progression after platinum-based chemotherapy was radiologically confirmed.
Results
The median follow-up period was 7.7 months. The objective response rate, median progression-free survival, and median overall survival were 20.6%, 3.3 months, and 11.7 months, respectively. Regarding the toxicities associated with pembrolizumab, adverse events (AEs) of any grade occurred in 61.8%, and grade 3 AEs occurred in 23.5%; grade ≥ 4 AEs did not occur in any patients. Univariate analyses revealed that the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group Performance Status, neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio, liver metastases, and time from previous chemotherapy were prognostic variables. Multivariate analyses revealed that liver metastases (positive: hazard ratio, 4.23; 95% confidence interval, 1.48 - 12.08; P < 0.01) and time from previous chemotherapy (≥ 3 months: hazard ratio, 5.06; 95% confidence interval, 1.43 - 17.91; P = 0.01) were independent prognostic factors.
Conclusions
In this real-world clinical study, these findings concerning the efficacy and safety of pembrolizumab for advanced UC in Japanese patients were comparable to those of the open-label, international, phase 3 trial KEYNOTE-045. Liver metastases and time from previous chemotherapy were independent prognostic factors in the present study.
Collapse