Nivolumab in pre-treated advanced non-small cell lung cancer: long term follow up data from the Dutch expanded access program and routine clinical care

Background For advanced non-small cell lung cancer anti-PD-1 treatment has become standard care in first and second line treatment in recent years. Because many of the clinical trials with anti-PD-1 drugs have only recently been completed, long term follow up data of patients treated with these agents is scarce, even more so of patients treated in real life clinical care. We present long term follow up of patients treated with nivolumab. Methods Two hundred forty-eight patients with pre-treated, advanced NSCLC who received nivolumab between August 2015 and December 2018 were included in this retrospective cohort study. Overall survival and progression free survival rates were calculated for the total cohort and for subgroups defined by clinical characteristics, responses to treatment, and other parameters. Data on further lines of treatment and characteristics of long term survivors were also collected. Results Median overall survival in the total cohort was 8.1 months, median progression free survival was 2.8 months. Overall survival after two and three years was 23.8% and 17.1%, respectively. Good ECOG performance scores, absence of liver metastases, experiencing treatment-related toxicity, and response to nivolumab were significantly associated with longer overall survival and progression free survival. Three-year survival rate among patients with an objective response was 55.3%. Survival for more than two years without subsequent therapy after nivolumab was observed in 13.3% of patients. Conclusions The results from our study confirm that long term survival rates of patients treated with nivolumab for advanced NSCLC in a real world clinical setting are comparable to survival rates shown in clinical trials.