Background: There is no clear information on the proportion of patients who need therapy for immune-related thyroid dysfunction (irTD) or who need to delay, omit, or discontinue immunotherapy. Furthermore, it is not well known whether irTD correlates with better outcomes or not.
Patients and methods: We conducted a retrospective study in patients with metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) treated with anti-PD1 or anti-PD-L1.
Results: Our study enrolled 75 patients, 25.3% of them developed immune-related thyroid dysfunction. Three patients delayed a course of immunotherapy due to irTD, 2 patients omitted a course and 1 patient permanently discontinued. In patients with irTD compared with those without irTD the ORR was 42.1% vs. 7.1% (p<0.001), DCR was 78.9% vs. 32.1% (p<0.001); mPFS was 15.7 vs. 3.6 months (p<0.001) and mOS was 18.6 months vs. 5.1 months (p<0.001).
Conclusion: Immune-related thyroid dysfunction has a mild impact on the immunotherapy treatment program. The occurrence of irTD correlates with more favorable response and survival.
Keywords: Non-small cell lung cancer; atezolizumab; checkpoint inhibitors; nivolumab; pembrolizumab; thyroid dysfunction.
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