Clinical outcomes, toxic effect, and immune microenvironment changes of drug-eluting bead bronchial arterial chemoembolisation/bronchial arterial chemoembolization combined with immunotherapy in treating elderly patients with non-small cell lung cancer.

Aim: Systemic chemotherapy plus immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) are first-line treatment for advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). However, elderly patients typically have comorbidities that tend to limit the use of chemotherapy at standard dosage and frequency. Drug-eluting bead bronchial arterial chemoembolisation (DEB-BACE)/bronchial arterial chemoembolization (BACE) represents options in such patients.

Materials And Methods: This is a retrospective analysis. We screened all elderly patients (aged ≥70 years) undergoing treatment with immunotherapy plus DEB-BACE/BACE for pathologically confirmed stage III-IV NSCLC with negative driver gene mutations from October 2019 to December 2023 at our hospital. The response was evaluated according to the Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors version 1.1 criteria.

Results: The final analysis included 46 patients (median age: 76 years; 42 men and 4 women). Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) performance status was either 1 or 2. The median progression-free survival and overall survival were 9.1 months (95% confidence interval [CI]: 8.4-9.9) and 18.2 months (95% CI: 16.5-19.9), respectively, after a median follow-up of 20.3 months (95% CI: 19.5-21.1) in all populations. The most prevalent adverse events (AEs) were myelosuppression (76.1%, 35/46), followed by decreased appetite (71.7%, 33/46), nausea (65.2%, 30/46), and fatigue (54.3%, 25/46). The rate of any grade and grade ≥3 immune-related AEs was 34.8% (16/46) and 6.5% (3/46), respectively. No patients experienced treatment-related deaths, haemoptysis, or unexpected embolisation.

Conclusion: DEB-BACE/BACE combined with immunotherapy was effective and well tolerated in elderly patients with advanced NSCLC.