Open AccessImpact of bowel movement condition on immune checkpoint inhibitor efficacy in patients with advanced non‐small cell lung cancer
Author(s) -
Katayama Yuki,
Yamada Tadaaki,
Tanimura Keiko,
Yoshimura Akihiro,
Takeda Takayuki,
Chihara Yusuke,
Tamiya Nobuyo,
Kaneko Yoshiko,
Uchino Junji,
Takayama Koichi
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
thoracic cancer
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.823
H-Index - 28
eISSN - 1759-7714
pISSN - 1759-7706
DOI - 10.1111/1759-7714.12969
Subject(s) - medicine , lung cancer , odds ratio , gastroenterology , colorectal cancer , oncology , cancer , retrospective cohort study , constipation
Background Cancer immunotherapy is under development as a promising alternative strategy for treating advanced non‐small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). However, the development of novel biomarkers to optimize the use of immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) is still ongoing. Gut microbiota are known to regulate a host's immunity and are associated with the response to ICIs in melanoma. Therefore, we analyzed the association between ICI treatment efficacy and bowel movement condition in patients with NSCLC. Methods This retrospective study analyzed patients with advanced NSCLC who were treated with ICIs between December 2015 and March 2018 at University Hospital Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine in Kyoto, Japan. The association between stool abnormalities and ICI efficacy was investigated. We defined patients with constipation or those who used a laxative as the stool abnormality group. Results We retrospectively enrolled 40 patients with advanced NSCLC who were treated with ICIs. The median age was 69.5 years; 20 patients had a stool abnormality and 20 patients did not. The disease control rates were lower in NSCLC patients with stool abnormalities than in those without stool abnormalities (20% vs. 77.8%, respectively; P = 0.0016). The time to treatment failure with ICI treatment was shorter in NSCLC patients with stool abnormalities compared with those without stool abnormalities ( P = 0.003; odds ratio, 3.09; 95% confidence interval 1.41–6.78). Conclusion Stool abnormality might be a predictive biomarker for the clinical benefit of ICI treatment in patients with NSCLC. Further investigations are warranted to validate our findings.