Retrospective analysis of immunotherapy outcomes in Black patients

Menée aux Etats-Unis à partir de données portant sur 26 398 patients atteints d'un cancer (durée médiane de suivi : 40,3 mois), cette étude de cohorte rétrospective évalue l'efficacité et la toxicité d'inhibiteurs de point de contrôle immunitaire en fonction de l'origine ethnique

Résumé en anglais

Now approved in over 20 cancer types and used in earlier lines of therapy, immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) have dramatically improved cancer outcomes over the past 13 years, yet little is known about their effectiveness and safety in non-White populations. Black patients have been historically under-represented in most clinical trials, including those for immunotherapy; landmark studies that led to the initial approvals of ICIs in melanoma predominantly included White patients, partly due to it disproportionately affecting White individuals.1–3 In the past 5 years, trials in other cancers have enrolled substantially fewer Black participants than White patients, with numbers too small to assess efficacy and safety accurately. For example, in the PACIFIC trial, which tested consolidation immunotherapy in stage III non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC), only 2% of the entire trial—a mere 14 patients—were Black.