Retrospective real-world study of first-line taxane-platinum with or without anti-PD-1 antibody for metastatic thymic carcinoma

A retrospective real-world study at Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center (Guangzhou, China) evaluated addition of anti-PD-1 antibody to first-line taxane-platinum (TP) chemotherapy for metatatic thymic carcinoma (mTC). The median progression-free survival was 9.43 months in the group was TP plus anti-PD-1 compared with 6.3 months in the group with TP (HR 0.37; p<0.001) while the median overall survival in these two groups was 52.3 versus 32.8 months (HR 0.44; p=0.080). In multivariate analysis, addition of anti-PD-1 to first-line TP was an independent predictor of PFS (HR 0.34; p=0.004). Treatment-related adverse events and immune-related adverse events in the TP + anti-PD-1 group were manageable. The authors conclude that addition of anti-PD-1 to first-line TP was associated with improved PFS among mTC patients, with manageable toxicity.