Safety and efficacy of immune checkpoint inhibitors in advanced gastric or gastroesophageal junction (GEJ) cancer could be demonstrated in predominantly Asian cohorts, whereas data in Western patients outside of clinical trials are vastly missing. | Schlintl et al. BMC Cancer 2022 22 51 https s12885-021-09115-6 RESEARCH ARTICLE Open Access Checkpoint inhibitors in metastatic gastric and GEJ cancer a multi-institutional retrospective analysis of real-world data in a Western cohort Verena Schlintl1 Florian Huemer1 Gabriel Rinnerthaler1 Thomas Melchardt1 Thomas Winder2 Patrick Reimann2 Jakob Riedl3 Arno Amann4 Wolfgang Eisterer5 Franz Romeder6 Gudrun Piringer7 Aysegül Ilhan Mutlu8 Ewald Wöll9 Richard Greil1 and Lukas Weiss1 Abstract Background Safety and efficacy of immune checkpoint inhibitors in advanced gastric or gastroesophageal junction GEJ cancer could be demonstrated in predominantly Asian cohorts whereas data in Western patients outside of clinical trials are vastly missing. Methods In this multi-institutional retrospective analysis conducted at nine oncologic centers in Austria we tried to assess feasibility of checkpoint inhibitors in advanced gastric GEJ cancer in a real-world Western cohort. Results In total data from 50 patients with metastatic gastric GEJ cancer who received nivolumab or pembroli zumab in a palliative setting between November 2015 and April 2020 have been evaluated. The median number of previous palliative therapy lines was two. The median progression-free survival PFS and overall survival OS were 95 CI and 95 CI months respectively. There was no statistically significant difference in median OS according to microsatellite or PD-L1 status. However a trend towards prolonged PFS and OS for the micro satellite instability high subgroup could be observed. Patients with an ECOG Performance Status PS 2 displayed a significantly worse outcome than those with an ECOG PS 1 p .03 . Only one patient discontinued immunother apy due to treatment-related toxicity. Conclusions Our results support feasibility of nivolumab and pembrolizumab in pre-treated patients with meta static gastric and GEJ cancer in a Western real-world cohort. Further phase II III .
