Table 1.
Baseline Characteristics of Patients With Advanced Squamous NSCLC Treated With First-Line Pembrolizumab-Chemotherapy, Overall and by PD-L1 Expression
| Characteristics | All Patients N = 364 |
PD-L1 Expression |
||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ≥1%a n = 172 | <1% n = 94 | Unknown n = 98 | ||
| Age, median (range), y | 70 (43–84) | 70 (43–84) | 72 (52–84) | 69 (50–84) |
| Age group, y | ||||
| <75 | 243 (66.8) | 116 (67.4) | 58 (61.7) | 69 (70.4) |
| ≥75 | 121 (33.2) | 56 (32.6) | 36 (38.3) | 29 (29.6) |
| Sex, male | 243 (66.8) | 115 (66.9) | 62 (66.0) | 66 (67.3) |
| Raceb | ||||
| White | 260 (78.5) | 119 (76.3) | 68 (80.0) | 73 (81.1) |
| Black or African American | 28 (8.5) | 15 (9.6) | 6 (7.1) | 7 (7.8) |
| Other | 43 (13.0) | 22 (14.1) | 11 (12.9) | 10 (11.1) |
| Unknown | 33 | 16 | 9 | 8 |
| Smoking status | ||||
| Positive history of smoking | 353 (97.0) | 168 (97.7) | 88 (93.6) | 97 (99.0) |
| Practice type | ||||
| Academic or both | 17 (4.7) | 8 (4.7) | 9 (9.6) | 0 |
| Community | 347 (95.3) | 164 (95.3) | 85 (90.4) | 98 (100) |
| ECOG PS | ||||
| 0 | 133 (36.5) | 51 (29.7) | 41 (43.6) | 41 (41.8) |
| 1 | 231 (63.5) | 121 (70.3) | 53 (56.4) | 57 (58.2) |
| Charlson comorbidity index | ||||
| Mean (SD) | 5.0 (3.2) | 5.0 (3.1) | 5.0 (3.4) | 4.8 (3.1) |
| Median (range) | 3 (0–14) | 3 (2–14) | 3 (2–14) | 3 (0–12) |
| Brain metastasisc | 16 (4.4) | 7 (4.1) | 4 (4.3) | 5 (5.1) |
| Advanced stage at initial diagnosisb,d | 271 (76.3) | 134 (78.4) | 65 (72.2) | 72 (76.6) |
| Stage IV at initial diagnosis | 245 (69.0) | 119 (69.6) | 60 (66.7) | 66 (70.2) |
| IHC clone for PD-L1 determination | ||||
| 22C3e | 231 (63.5) | 147 (85.5) | 75 (79.8) | 9 (9.2) |
| Other | 28 (7.7) | 14 (8.1) | 9 (9.6) | 5 (5.1) |
| Unknown, missing, or not documented | 105 (28.8) | 11 (6.4) | 10 (10.6) | 84 (85.7) |
| Taxane chemotherapy | ||||
| Paclitaxel | 197 (54.1) | 97 (56.4) | 48 (51.1) | 52 (53.1) |
| Nab-paclitaxel | 167 (45.9) | 75 (43.6) | 46 (48.9) | 46 (46.9) |
Note: Data are n (%) unless otherwise noted. Percentages may not add up to 100 because of rounding.
ECOG PS, Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status; IHC, immunohistochemistry; PD-L1, programmed death-ligand 1.
Patients with PD-L1 expression of greater than or equal to 1% included 48 patients (28%) with PD-L1 greater than or equal to 50% and 124 (72%) with PD-L1 expression of 1% to 49%.
Percentages for race and stage at initial diagnosis represent the percentages of patients with available data.
It was not possible to identify whether patients had active brain metastasis in this observational study.
Advanced stage at initial diagnosis included stages IIIB, IIIC, and IV. (Nine patients had no recorded stage at diagnosis.)
Of the 22C3 IHC assays, 219 of 231 (95%) used the PD-L1 IHC 22C3 pharmDx, pembrolizumab companion diagnostic assay.