Background Immune checkpoint inhibitors have changed previous treatment paradigm of advanced urothelial carcinoma (UC). The ARON-2 study (NCT05290038) aimed to assess the real-world effectiveness of pembrolizumab in patients recurred or progressed after platinum-based chemotherapy. Patients and Methods Medical records of patients with documented metastatic UC treated by pembrolizumab as second-line therapy were retrospectively collected from 88 institutions in 23 countries. Patients were assessed for overall survival (OS), progression-free survival (PFS) and overall response rate (ORR). Cox proportional hazards models were adopted to explore the presence of prognostic factors. Results In total, 836 patients were included: 544 patients (65%) received pembrolizumab after progression to first-line platinum-based chemotherapy in the metastatic setting (cohort A) and 292 (35%) after recurring within < 12 months since the completion of adjuvant or neoadjuvant chemotherapy (cohort B). The median follow-up time was 15.3 months. The median OS and the ORR were 10.5 months and 31% in the overall study population, 9.1 months and 29% in cohort A and 14.6 months and 37% in cohort B. At multivariate analysis, ECOG-PS ≥ 2, bone metastases, liver metastases and pembroli-zumab setting (cohort A vs B) proved to be significantly associated with worst OS and PFS. Stratified by the presence of 0, 1-2 or 3-4 prognostic factors, the median OS was 29.4, 12.5 and 4.1 months (p < 0.001), while the median PFS was 12.2, 6.4 and 2.8 months, respectively (p < 0.001). Conclusions Our study confirms that pembrolizumab is effective in the advanced UC real-world context, showing outcome differences between patients recurred or progressed after platinum-based chemotherapy.
Affiliations
IRCCS Azienda Ospedaliero- Universitaria di Bologna, Bologna, ItalyMedical Oncology
Centre Hospitalier de Jolimont, Haine Saint Paul, BelgiumDepartment of Medical Oncology
Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USADana Farber Cancer Institute
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Massari, F., Santoni, M., Takeshita, H., Okada, Y., Tapia, J., Basso, U., Maruzzo, M., Scagliarini, S., Büttner, T., Fornarini, G., Myint, Z., Galli, L., Souza, V., Pichler, R., De Giorgi, U., Gandur, N., Lam, E., Gilbert, D., Popovic, L., et al. (2024). Global real-world experiences with pembrolizumab in advanced urothelial carcinoma after platinum-based chemotherapy: the ARON-2 study. Cancer Immunology, Immunotherapy, 73(6), 106. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00262-024-03682-w (Original work published 2024)