• Alessio Cortellini, Melissa Bersanelli, Daniele Santini, Sebastiano Buti, Marcello Tiseo, Katia Cannita, Fabiana Perrone, Raffaele Giusti, Michele De Tursi, Federica Zoratto, Riccardo Marconcini, Marco Russano, Tea Zeppola, Cecilia Anesi, Marco Filetti, Paolo Marchetti, Andrea Botticelli, Alain Gelibter, Federica De Galitiis, Maria Giuseppa Vitale, Francesca Rastelli, Marianna Tudini, Rosa Rita Silva, Francesco Atzori, Rita Chiari, Biagio Ricciuti, Andrea De Giglio, Maria Rita Migliorino, Domenico Mallardo, Vito Vanella, Claudia Mosillo, Sergio Bracarda, Silvia Rinaldi, Rossana Berardi, Clara Natoli, Corrado Ficorella, Giampiero Porzio, and Paolo A Ascierto.
• Medical Oncology, St. Salvatore Hospital, L'Aquila, Italy; Department of Biotechnological and Applied Clinical Sciences, University of L'Aquila, L'Aquila, Italy. Electronic address: alessiocortellini@gmail.com.
• Eur. J. Cancer. 2020 Mar 1; 128: 17-26.

BackgroundSeveral studies have found an association between higher body mass index (BMI) and improved clinical outcomes in cancer patients receiving programmed cell death protein-1 (PD-1)/programmed cell death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) checkpoint inhibitors. In a previous study, we found that overweight/obese patients were significantly more likely to experience any grade immune-related adverse events (irAEs) compared to non-overweight patients.Patients And MethodsWe conducted a 'real-life', multi centre, retrospective observational study aimed at comparing the incidence of irAEs among cancer patients treated with PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors according to baseline BMI.ResultsOne thousand and seventy advanced cancer patients were evaluated. The median age was 68 years (range: 21-92), male/female ratio was 724/346. Primary tumours were: non-small-cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC) (653 patients), melanoma (233 patients), renal cell carcinoma (RCC) (152 patients) and others (29 patients). Median BMI was 25 (13.6-46.6); according to World Health Organisation (WHO) classification, 44 patients (4.1%) were defined as underweight, 480 patients (44.9%) as having a normal weight, 416 patients (38.9%) as overweight and 130 patients (12.1%) as obese. Higher BMI was significantly related to higher occurrence of any grade immune-related adverse events [irAEs] (p < 0.0001), G3/G4 irAEs (p < 0.0001) and irAEs leading to discontinuation (LTD) (p < 0.0001). Overweight and obesity were confirmed predictors for irAEs of any grade at both univariate and multivariate analysis. The adjusted odds ratios (ORs) (compared to normal-weight) were 10.6; 95% confidence interval (95%CI): 7.5-14.9 for overweight, and 16.6 (95%CI: 10.3-26.7) for obese patients. Obesity was the only factor significantly related to a higher incidence of G3/G4 irAEs (OR = 11.9 [95%CI: 6.4-22.3], p < 0.0001) and LTD irAEs (OR = 8.8 [95%CI: 4.3-18.2], p < 0.0001). Overweight and obese patients experienced a significantly higher occurrence of cutaneous, endocrine, gastro-intestinal (GI), hepatic and 'others' irAEs, compared to normal-weight patients. Only obese patients experienced a significantly higher occurrence of pulmonary and rheumatic irAEs, compared to normal-weight patients.ConclusionsConsidering the previously evidenced association between higher BMI and better outcome, the current finding about the relationship between BMI and irAEs occurrence can contribute to consideration of these findings as the upside of the downside, which underlies an 'immunogenic phenotype'.Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

37 keywords...

hide…