Disparity in survival benefits of pembrolizumab between Asian and non-Asian patients with advanced cancers: A systematic review and meta-regression analysis

Background: Immune checkpoint inhibitors have revolutionized the treatment of malignancies. However, disproportionate enrollment among races and ethnicities places the generalizability of global trial results in doubt.Methods: In this systematic review, phase 3 randomized controlled trials investigating pembrolizumab in advanced cancers and providing subgroup analyses of Asian and non-Asian participants were included. The primary and secondary effect measures were the mean differences (MDs) in the natural logarithms of the hazard ratios (HRs) for overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) between these two subgroups, respectively. We used random-effects meta-analysis to calculate the pooled ratios of HRs (i.e., exp(MD)) and implemented a meta-regression analysis to identify significant covariates.Results: A total of 17 and 11 trials were included in the meta-analyses of OS and PFS, respectively. These trials included 2732 (25.49%) Asian and 7000 (65.32%) non-Asian participants in the OS analysis and 1438 (22.5%) Asian and 4129 (64.61%) non-Asian participants in the PFS analysis. The pooled ratio of HRs for OS was 0.87 (95% CI: 0.76-0.99; p = 0.0391), favoring Asian participants, but no significant difference was found in PFS (pooled ratio of HRs: 0.93; 95% CI: 0.82-1.07; p = 0.2391). Both linear meta-regression analyses revealed an open-label design as a crucial covariate, which indicated more benefits for non-Asian participants.Conclusions: Compared with non-Asian patients, Asian patients with advanced cancers may derive superior OS benefits from pembrolizumab. Although the results warrant further exploration, this meta-analysis provides insight into clinical research design.

Automated summary

This systematic review found that Asian patients with advanced cancers may derive superior overall survival benefits from pembrolizumab compared to non-Asian patients. However, no significant difference was found in progression-free survival. The study also identified the open-label design as a key covariate that favored non-Asian participants. These findings provide important insights into clinical research design.