Our aim was to describe the incidence and characteristics of immune-related adverse events (irAEs) in patients with non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) treated with immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI) and to evaluate their impact on outcome. All cases of NSCLC patients treated with ICIs in the second-line setting between December 2015 and May 2018 were evaluated. Seventy patients were included. Mean age was 65.9 years, and the majority of male (n = 53, 75.7%), with PS of 0-1 (n = 62, 88.6%) treated with nivolumab (n = 51; 72.9%). Thirty-one patients (44.3%) experienced an AE, 5 (7.1%) were grades 3-4. Median OS in patients with AE was 30.1 months (95% CI, 16.7-43.5) compared with 5.1 months (95% CI, 1.2-9.0) in cases without AE (log-rank test: p = 0.010). The adjusted HR for OS was 0.46 (95% CI, 0.25-0.86) for the irAE occurrence and 3.60 (95% CI, 1.56-8.32) for PS 2-3 group. The development of irAEs was associated with improved patient outcome.
Keywords: Immunotherapy; adverse events; atezolizumab; lung neoplasm; nivolumab; pembrolizumab; survival.