Open AccessTreatment patterns in patients with metastatic non-small-cell lung cancer in the era of immunotherapy
Author(s) -
David D. Stenehjem,
Solomon J. Lubinga,
Keith A. Betts,
Wenxi Tang,
Mark Jenkins,
Yong Yuan,
John D. Hartman,
Sumati Rao,
Juan F. Lam,
David Waterhouse
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
future oncology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.857
H-Index - 72
eISSN - 1744-8301
pISSN - 1479-6694
DOI - 10.2217/fon-2021-0230
Subject(s) - medicine , immunotherapy , lung cancer , oncology , chemotherapy , retrospective cohort study , stage (stratigraphy) , cancer , paleontology , biology
Background: Chemotherapy (CT) alone was previously standard first-line (1L) therapy for metastatic non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) but alternative treatments, including immunotherapy (I-O), are now available. Patients & methods: In this retrospective study, adults with stage IV NSCLC who initiated 1L treatment between 1 August 2018 and 31 December 2019 and had ≥2 visits were identified in the Flatiron database. Patients were followed up until 30 June 2020. Baseline characteristics and treatment patterns were described by treatment group: CT, I-O + CT, I-O monotherapy and other. Results: Approximately 20% of patients received 1L CT in the 2018–2019 timeframe studied; these patients tended to have squamous histology and low (≤49%) programmed death ligand-1 expression. Conclusion: A proportion of patients with metastatic NSCLC still receive 1L CT despite the availability and widespread use of I-O therapies.