Continuation of immunotherapy beyond progression is beneficial to the survival of advanced non-small-cell lung cancer.

Purpose: To investigate the potential clinical importance of continuing immunotherapy beyond progression in patients with advanced non-small-cell lung cancer (aNSCLC).

Methods: The data of patients with aNSCLC who experienced progressive disease after receiving first-line immunotherapy plus chemotherapy were collected from multiple centers for the period from January 1, 2018 to May 31, 2022. According to the second-line treatment, the patients were classified into two groups: the continuation of immunotherapy beyond progression (CIBP) group and the discontinuation of immunotherapy beyond progression (DIBP) group. The efficacy and safety of the treatment were compared between the groups.

Results: Overall, data from 169 patients were analyzed; 93 patients were enrolled in the CIBP group and 76 patients were in the DIBP group. The median second-line progression-free survival was 5.5 months in the CIBP group, which for the DIBP group was 3.4 (p = 0.011). The median overall survival of the CIBP group was 13.3 months, whereas that of the DIBP group was 8.8 months (p = 0.031). The disease control rate of the CIBP group (79.57%) was observably higher than that of the DIBP group (64.47%; p = 0.028). Among patients who responded better (complete or partial response) to prior therapy, the median progression-free survival was 5.5 months and 3.3 months in the CIBP and DIBP groups respectively (p = 0.022), and the median overall survival was 14.8 months and 8.8 months in the CIBP and DIBP groups respectively (p = 0.046).

Conclusions: Continuing immunotherapy as a second-line treatment could be beneficial to the survival of patients with aNSCLC with disease progression beyond initial chemotherapy combined with immunotherapy.