Comprehensive analyses of the clinical benefits of immune checkpoint inhibitors in advanced non-small cell lung cancer.

168Background: Treatment with immune checkpoint inhibitors is becoming the standard of care for patients and it was approved for the treatment of non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) growing at a rapid pace. However, selecting patients who are appropriate for therapy and which therapeutic strategies to use can be challenging. Methods: We searched for randomized clinical trials (RCTs) investigating immune checkpoint inhibitors versus observation in patients with advanced NSCLC until September 2017. Overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) were pooled by meta-analysis. The GRADE system was used to describe the quality of evidence. Results: The analysis included 11 trials with 5,538 unique patients. High- to moderate-quality evidence indicated that immune checkpoint inhibitors extended NSCLC survival and PFS, expressed as hazard ratios (HRs) (OS: 0.79, P = 0.000; PFS: 0.78, P = 0.000). High- to moderate-quality evidence revealed prolonged OS and PFS were similar across preplanned subgroups in ...