Table 3. The effect of clinical, pathologic, and genetic features on overall survival in patients with Merkel cell carcinoma treated with immune checkpoint inhibition (multivariate Cox proportional hazard modeling).
| Variable | Total (n = 45) | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| HR | [95% CI] | p-value | |
| Female sex | 2.38 | 0.16–34.61 | 0.53 |
| Older age at diagnosis | 1.04 | 0.97–1.13 | 0.28 |
| Higher stage at diagnosis | 2.88 | 0.69–12.08 | 0.15 |
| Smoking history (current or former) | 3.19 | 0.55–18.57 | 0.20 |
| Immunosuppressed | 7.49 | 0.59–95.51 | 0.12 |
| Longer time to recurrence | 1.12 | 0.97–1.30 | 0.13 |
| Greater CPI line of therapy | 1.09 | 0.45–2.61 | 0.85 |
| Higher absolute lymphocyte count | 0.39 | 0.06–2.53 | 0.33 |
| Grade 3 or greater adverse events A | 0.05 | <0.01–1.08 | 0.05 |
| Higher total mutational burden | 1.02 | 0.93–1.11 | 0.68 |
| MCCP | 1.65 | 0.18–15.28 | 0.66 |
Female sex, smoking history, immunosuppressed, grade 3 or greater adverse events, and MCCP are binary categorical variables. Stage at diagnosis and line of therapy are ordinal categorical variables. All other variables are continuous variables. CI = confidence interval; CPI = immune checkpoint inhibitor; HR = hazard ratio (response vs. non-response); MCCP = Merkel cell carcinoma polyomavirus positive. A Using Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events (CTCAE) version 5.0.