The association between body mass index and efficacy of pembrolizumab as second-line therapy in patients with recurrent/metastatic head and neck squamous cell carcinoma

Background Recent evidence suggested a potential correlation between BMI and the efficacy of immune checkpoint inhibitors in cancer patients. This study aimed to evaluate the prognostic value of the body mass index (BMI) in recurrent/metastatic head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (R/M HNSCC) patients treat with pembrolizumab. Methods The current retrospective cohort study enrolled 49 R/M HNSCC patients underwent at least one cycle of pembrolizumab as second-line treatment from June 2018 to October 2020. Survival analysis of immunotherapy prognosis and risk factor analysis of age, gender, BMI, ECOG-PS, CPS, rT-stage, tumor site, and tube feeding. Results Among the 49 patients, the BMI at the time of immunotherapy ranged from 14.5 to 32.0 kg/m(2). The Kaplan-Meier analysis showed that the BMI was significantly correlated with overall survival time (OS, p = 0.0007) and progression-free survival time (PFS, p = 0.0012). BMI, gender, prior treatment, serum albumin level, ECOG-PS, CPS and rT-stage were analyzed in multivariate Cox regression model analysis after adjusted for potential confounding clinical variables. Patients with underweight (OS:HR = 6.862, 95% CI:1.566-30.064, p = 0.011; PFS:HR = 5.672, 95% CI:1.364-23.586, p = 0.017);ECOG >= 2 (OS:HR = 0.250, 95% CI:0.086-0.731, p = 0.011;PFS:HR = 0.284, 95% CI:0.101-0.805, p = 0.018); CPS <1(OS: HR = 4.34, 95% CI:1.271-15.464, p = 0.019; PFS:HR = 3.859, 95% CI:1.180-12.618, p = 0.025) and rT4-stage(OS:HR = 4.380, 95% CI:1.452-13.209, p = 0.009;PFS: HR = 3.799, 95% CI:1.240-11.638, p = 0.019) suffered higher risk of mortality. Conclusions The BMI at the time of clinical diagnosis was showed to be an independent predictive factor for R/M HNSCC patients receiving pembrolizumab. Compared with normal weight patients, underweight patients have worse clinical prognosis.

Automated summary

This study evaluated the prognostic value of body mass index (BMI) in recurrent/metastatic head and neck squamous cell carcinoma patients treated with pembrolizumab. The results showed that BMI was significantly correlated with overall survival time and progression-free survival time. Underweight patients had worse clinical prognosis compared to normal weight patients.