Associations of immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy efficacy with clinical parameters and tumor­infiltrating CD68­positive cell counts in patients with EGFR­mutant non­small cell lung cancer.

ABSTRACT

Immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) therapy has been less effective in patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) harboring epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutations than in patients with EGFR wild-type NSCLC. This retrospective study was conducted to investigate the associations of clinical parameters with the efficacy of ICI therapy in patients with EGFR-mutant NSCLC. Clinical information was retrieved from the medical charts, and immunohistochemical analysis was performed in some cases to determine the tumor-infiltrating CD68-positive cell count. Data from 46 patients were included in the analysis. The median (95% confidence interval) progression-free survival and overall survival from the initiation of ICI therapy was 1.4 months (1.0-1.7 months) and 6.4 months (3.9-19.0 months), respectively. Analysis using a Cox proportional hazards model revealed that tumor programmed death-ligand 1 expression was associated with the overall survival of patients with EGFR-mutant NSCLC after ICI treatment. The tumor-infiltrating CD68-positive cell count was evaluated in 11 patients. Comparison using the log-rank test revealed that the progression-free survival time after ICI treatment was longer in the patients with lower tumor-infiltrating CD68-positive cell counts than those with higher tumor-infiltrating CD68-positive cell counts. The present analysis demonstrated that PD-L1 expression and the tumor-infiltrating CD68-positive cell count may be associated with the efficacy of ICI therapy in patients with NSCLC harboring EGFR mutations.