Toxicity Profile of Combining PD-1/PD-L1 Inhibitors and Thoracic Radiotherapy in Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer: A Systematic Review

Background The combination of immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) and thoracic radiotherapy (TRT) has shown significant clinical activity in patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). However, the currently available data on adverse events (AEs) were derived from a small subset of patients included in prospective clinical trials or retrospective studies. Thus, we conducted this systematic review to determine the AEs associated with this combination treatment. Methods An electronic literature search was performed in databases and conference proceedings of prospective clinical trials assessing the combination of ICIs and TRT for patients with NSCLC. The systematic analysis was conducted to determine the profile and incidence of AEs of combination treatment. We further performed the comparison of AEs between programmed cell death 1 (PD-1) and programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1) inhibitors, and sequential and concurrent administration of ICIs and TRT to help identify high risk patients. The systematic analyses were conducted with the Review Manager (version 5.3; The Cochrane Collaboration, Oxford, United Kingdom) and Stata version 12.0 (StataCorp, College Station, TX, USA) software. Results Eleven clinical trials involving 1,113 patients with NSCLC were eligible for analysis. The incidence of all-grade AEs was 95.5%; that of high-grade AEs (grade >= 3) was 30.2%. The most frequent all-grade AE was fatigue (49.7%), while pneumonitis was the most common high-grade AE (3.8%) and grade 5 AE (0.6%). Notably, the toxicity profiles of PD-1 and PD-L1 inhibitors were similar. Concurrent treatment was associated with a higher incidence of higher-grade AEs (41.6% vs 24.8%, P=0.17) and pneumonitis (7.1% vs 3.9%, P=0.14) compared to sequential treatment, but no significant difference was observed. Conclusion Most AEs of this combination treatment are tolerable; as the most common high-grade AE, pneumonitis deserves the utmost attention of physicians. The toxicity profiles of patients receiving PD-1 or PD-L1 were similar, and no significant difference was observed between concurrent and sequential treatment.

Automated summary

The combination of immune checkpoint inhibitors and thoracic radiotherapy in NSCLC patients shows significant clinical activity, with most adverse events being tolerable. Pneumonitis, as the most common high-grade AE, requires close attention. The toxicity profiles of PD-1 and PD-L1 inhibitors are similar, and there is no significant difference between concurrent and sequential treatment in terms of adverse event incidence.