Black patients have longer time to treatment discontinuation, similar time to next treatment, slightly improved overall survival than White patients<\/p>\n<\/h3>\n
By Elana Gotkine HealthDay Reporter<\/b>
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THURSDAY, Dec. 5, 2024 (HealthDay News) — Black patients have similar immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) effectiveness and lower toxicities compared with White patients, according to a study published online Nov. 14 in The Lancet Oncology<\/em>.<\/p>\n Sean Miller, M.D., from the Veterans Affairs Ann Arbor Healthcare System in Michigan, and colleagues conducted a retrospective cohort study to characterize the effectiveness and safety of ICIs in Black patients. All patients in the U.S. Veterans Health Administration system Corporate Data Warehouse who self-identified as non-Hispanic Black or African American or non-Hispanic White and received PD-1, PD-L1, CTLA-4, or LAG-3 inhibitors between Jan. 1, 2010, and Dec. 31, 2023, were included.<\/p>\n Data were included for 26,398 patients: 18.7 percent Black and 81.3 percent White. The researchers found that Black patients had longer time to treatment discontinuation compared with White patients (two-year unadjusted rates, 10.7 versus 8.6 percent; adjusted hazard ratio, 0.91); similar time to next treatment (23.5 versus 25.6 percent for White patients); and slightly improved overall survival (36.5 versus 36.5 percent for Black versus White patients; hazard ratio, 0.95). Black patients had a reduced risk for all-grade immune-related adverse events compared with White patients; immune-related adverse events requiring treatment with systemic steroids; and immune-related adverse events resulting in permanent ICI discontinuation (adjusted hazard ratios, 0.75, 0.61, and 0.58, respectively).<\/p>\n “To our knowledge, this study is the largest analysis of ICI efficacy and safety in Black patients to date, a population severely under-represented in ICI clinical trials, and raises crucial questions regarding the reasons for lower observed immune-related adverse events than in White patients,” the authors write.<\/p>\n Abstract\/Full Text (subscription or payment may be required)<\/a><\/p>\n