Abstract:
Objective To investigate the efficacy, safety, and prognostic factors associated with immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) in patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) comorbid with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).
Methods Clinical and pathological data were collected from 100 patients with stage Ⅲ-Ⅳ NSCLC who received one or more cycles of ICI treatment at Peking University Shougang Hospital between January 2018 and October 2024 were collected. Based on COPD diagnosis, patients were assigned into the NSCLC with COPD (LC-COPD, n=52) and NSCLC without COPD (non-COPD, n=48) groups. The efficacy, safety, and prognostic factors of ICIs treatment were retrospectively analyzed in both groups. Survival analysis was performed using the Kaplan-Meier method, and survival rates were compared using the Log-rank test.
Results Among the patients who received ICIs treatment, median progression-free survival (PFS) in the LC-COPD group was longer than that in the non-COPD group (11.97 vs. 7.83 months, P=0.022), but no significant difference was detected in overall survival (OS) (22.37 vs. 16.80 months, P=0.110). Compared with the LC-COPD group and patients with normal lung function, the preserved ratio impaired spirometry (PRISm) subgroup showed worse median PFS and OS following immunotherapy (all P<0.05). Multivariate analysis revealed that COPD comorbidity, programmed cell death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) expression, treatment line, and neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (NLR) were independently associated with PFS (P<0.05). Additionally, PD-L1 expression, immunotherapy efficacy, NLR, and inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) use were significantly associated with OS (P<0.05). The incidence of immune-related adverse events was comparable between the two groups.
Conclusions ICI treatment demonstrated a greater positive impact on PFS in patients with NSCLC and COPD than in patients with NSCLC alone in a real-world study, with a good safety profile in both groups. NSCLC patients with PRISm showed poorer outcomes following ICI treatment. PD-L1 expression, FeNO, NLR, and ICS may serve as potential predictive biomarkers for immunotherapy efficacy in NSCLC patients with COPD.