Nivolumab plus ipilimumab versus pembrolizumab as chemotherapy-free, first-line treatment for PD-L1-positive non-small cell lung cancer

Background Nivolumab plus ipilimumab (N-I) or pembrolizumab (PEM) is associated with survival improvement as chemotherapy-free, first-line treatment for patients with advanced non-small cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC) and positive programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1). However, no direct comparison data exist between these two regimens to inform clinical decisions. Therefore, we performed indirect comparison for N-I versus PEM using frequentist methods. Results Three randomized trials (KEYNOTE-024, KEYNOTE-042, and CheckMate 227) involving 2372 patients were included. For patients with tumor PD-L1 level of >= 1%, pooled meta-analyses showed that both N-I and PEM improved overall survival (OS) relative to chemotherapy (N-I: hazard ratio [HR] 0.82, 95% CI 0.69-0.97; PEM: HR 0.81, 95% CI 0.71-0.93); whereas only N-I significantly improved progression-free survival (PFS) (N-I: HR 0.79, 95% CI 0.65-0.96; PEM: HR 1.07, 95% CI 0.94-1.21). Neither N-I nor PEM was associated with improved objective response rate (ORR) compared with chemotherapy (N-I: relative risk [RR] 1.20, 95% CI 0.98-1.46; PEM: RR 1.03, 95% CI 0.86-1.23). Indirect comparisons showed that N-I was associated with longer PFS than PEM (HR 0.77, 95% CI 0.62-0.95). However, N-I was not superior to PEM in terms of OS (HR 0.98, 95% CI 0.77-1.24) and ORR (RR 1.17, 95% CI 0.89-1.52). N-I showed a less favorable toxicity profile relative to PEM (all grade adverse events: RR 1.28, 95% CI 1.17-1.40). Conclusions N-I and PEM provide comparable OS benefit for PD-L1-positive NSCLC. N-I further improves PFS relative to PEM but at meaningful cost of toxicities.