The impact of gender on The efficacy of immune checkpoint inhibitors in cancer patients: The MOUSEION-01 study

Abstract

The primary endpoint of MOUSEION-01 was to assess overall survival (OS) in male and female patients receiving immune checkpoint inhibitors versus control treatments, calculating the pooled OS Hazard Ratio (HR) and 95 % Confidence Interval (CI) in both groups. 37 randomized phase III studies and 22646 patients (16382 men and 6264 women) were included. In patients treated with immunotherapy (as monotherapy or in combination with other agents), the pooled OS HR was 0.78 (0.75-0.82) and 0.77 (95 % CI, 0.72-0.83) in male and female subjects, respectively. The pooled HR for OS in male patients treated with single-agent immunotherapy versus control was 0.77 (95 % CI, 0.70-0.85), while this benefit was smaller in female patients (HR, 0.81; 95 % CI, 0.73-0.9). Our findings highlight that high-quality trials accounting for potential confounders are needed before being able to suggest a real effect of the patient's gender on immune checkpoint inhibitors efficacy in different settings.

Keywords: Atezolizumab; Avelumab; Durvalumab; Gender; Immunotherapy; Nivolumab; Pembrolizumab; Sex.