• Korean Journal of Clinical Pharmacy
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.11-18
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• 2020

Background: Nivolumab and pembrolizumab are antagonists of the programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) receptor that function as immuno-oncological agents. This study aimed to evaluate the safety and efficacy of nivolumab and pembrolizumab in elderly patients in outpatient settings. Methods: The safety and efficacy of nivolumab and pembrolizumab were compared retrospectively among patients at the Veterans Health Service (VHS) Medical Center in Seoul, South Korea, from September 1, 2017 to August 25, 2018. Results: Eighty-seven patients were selected for the study. The median progression-free survival was 63 days for nivolumab (95% confidence interval (CI), [14 to 282]) vs. 243 days for pembrolizumab (95% CI, [22 to 348]) (p =0.04). The objective response rate (ORR) was 0% in the nivolumab group vs 5.6% in the pembrolizumab group (p =0.310). All the patients exhibited treatment-related adverse effects. More than 89% of the patients exhibited diseases of the gastrointestinal (GI) tract. Pneumonia, of grades three or higher, was the most common adverse effect, followed by weakness and anorexia. Conclusions: There was no statistically significant difference between the nivolumab group and the pembrolizumab group with respect to the ORR. The incidence and severity of the adverse effects in this study were higher than those of previous studies; however, these adverse effects are generally manageable in a real-world clinical setting. Further randomized controlled studies will be necessary to confirm these results in elderly patients.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Pharmacy
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.237-246
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• 2021

Background: Pembrolizumab, an anti-cancer drug, is known to increase the activity of the immune system, leading to side effects called immune-related adverse events (irAE), including type 1 diabetes. This study analyzed the correlation between blood glucose level and pembrolizumab administration and investigated the covariates that affect those changes in cancer treatment. Methods: The information of 133 adult cancer patients was obtained from the electronic medical record (EMR) to identify the changes in random blood glucose (RBG) levels during the pembrolizumab treatment. Subjects were classified into subgroups according to their baseline RBG level, history of diabetes, and the use of steroids, and linear regression analysis was conducted. In addition, a secondary analysis was performed within the group of subjects having a strong correlation to glycemic change, which was based on the Pearson correlation coefficient being less than -0.7 or greater than +0.7. Univariate and multivariate logistic regressions were conducted to identify the risk factors to glycemic increase. Results: The RBG level tended to descend without significant differences in total patients during the administration period of pembrolizumab. Despite the insignificance, the logistic regression analysis presents that the odds ratios of baseline RBG less than 130 mg/dL, prophylactic steroid use, and higher dose of pembrolizumab per cycle (mg/kg/cycle) were greater than 1. Conclusions: Prophylactic administration of steroids and a higher dose of pembrolizumab per cycle may increase the blood glucose level as irAE in cancer patients with a strong tendency to glycemic change.

• Journal of Digestive Cancer Research
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.22-30
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• 2022

Immune checkpoint inhibition has been established as a new treatment option for various types of carcinoma, and many clinical trials are being actively conducted as a treatment for advanced or metastatic gastric cancer, either as a monotherapy with an immune checkpoint inhibitor or as a combination therapy with standard chemotherapy. In the CheckMate-649 clinical trial to confirm the efficacy of the combination of nivolumab and chemotherapy (FP) in advanced gastric cancer and gastroesophageal junction cancer, nivolumab group showed improvement in overall survival in programmed death ligand 1-positive cancer patients compared with placebo group. Also, the combination therapy of pembrolizumab, trastuzumab and chemotherapy (FP) in first-line treatment was tested through the KEYNOTE-811 trial. The pembrolizumab group showed 22.7% of improvement in objective response rate compared with placebo group. Accordingly, the combination of nivolumab/pembrolizumab with standard chemotherapy was approved for the first-line treatment. In KEYNOTE-059 trials for patients with progressive disease after at least two lines of chemotherapy, pembrolizumab monotherapy showed improvement in objective response rate and overall survival, and the use of pembrolizumab was approved for the third-line or more treatment. In this article, we review the result of clinical trials related to immune checkpoint inhibitors that have been recently introduced in the treatment of gastric cancer.

• Journal of Korean Traditional Oncology
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.11-25
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• 2018

Objective: The purpose of this study is to report the case of a patient with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with Programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) mutation treated by Integrative Medicine Therapy (IMT). Methods: A patient with metastatic NSCLC received pembrolizumab 200mg intravenously for every 3 weeks from July 2017. Repeat cycle every 3 weeks since July 2017. The patient has been treated with Integrative Medicine Therapy (IMT) since December 2016. The tumor size was measured by computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging(MRI). Adverse events were evaluated by the National Cancer Institute Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events (NCI-CTCAE), version 5.0. Results: After combined treatment, the extent of proximal portion of primary tumor in the left lower lobe was decreased and disease status was stable radiologically. No evidence of newly developed metastatic lesions in the brain since May 2017. The patient did not experience any adverse event according to NCI-CTCAE ver. 5.0. Conclusion: This case study suggests that Integrative Medicine Therapy (IMT) may contribute to tumor response, in conjunction with Pembrolizumab on the treatment of patients with NSCLC.

• Journal of Yeungnam Medical Science
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• v.38 no.4
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• pp.366-370
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• 2021

Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) have become the main drugs for programmed cell death receptor-1 or ligand-1 expressing non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) combined with conventional chemotherapy. ICIs are generally more tolerable than cytotoxic chemotherapies in terms of toxicity, and ICI-related adverse events are mild and manageable. However, these drugs may lead to unexpected severe adverse events such as immune-related hematologic toxicities, which could be life-threatening. Here, a rare case of a pembrolizumab-related adverse event in a patient with NSCLC who showed early-onset hemolytic anemia and recovered by high-dose steroid and a series of plasma exchanges is reported.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.55-58
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• 2019

Development of stable rCHO cell lines is still time consuming and labor intensive, although it is a critical step in the commercial development of recombinant antibodies. The current work demonstrates, for the first time, that electroporation of CHO cells with DMSO can enhance stable expression of recombinant antibodies in rCHO cells. Electroporation with DMSO resulted in an average 3.7-fold and 2.8-fold increases in expression levels of aflibercept and pembrolizumab, respectively, in pools of stable rCHO cells. It also resulted in an average of 2.2-fold and 2.6-fold increases in the expression of aflibercept and pembrolizumab, respectively, in single-cell derived rCHO clones. Simple batch cultures of rCHO cell clones with the highest expression produced 1.0 g/l for aflibercept and 1.4 g/l for pembrolizumab without a time-consuming gene amplification process. Electroporation with DMSO also shortened the development of rCHO cell lines to 2-3 months, allowing rapid establishment of stable rCHO cell lines with a desirable expression level antibodies.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Pharmacy
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.188-197
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• 2021

Objective: PD-1 inhibitors have demonstrated improved health outcomes in cancer patients. PD-1 inhibitors are well-tolerated and associated with immune-related adverse events. The objectives of this study are to analyze use patterns of PD-1 inhibitors in patients with cancer and to investigate the incidence of thyroid-related adverse reactions in patients treated with PD-1 inhibitors. Methods: The study included patients who had been administered PD-1 inhibitors (either nivolumab or pembrolizumab) at the Samsung Medical Center between October 1, 2016 and June 30, 2017. Data was collected from electronic medical records and tested using Mann-Whitney tests and Chi-Square tests for statistical significance. Associations between PD-1 inhibitors and incidence of adverse events were tested using Cox regression for age, gender, BMI, ECOG PS and medication. Results: Two hundred fifteen patients were identified as eligible for analyses. Thyroid-related adverse events occurred in 20% of patients (n=43). Thyroid function tests (TFTs) was performed in 109 patients (50.7%). Positive results of PD-L1 testing were found in 53.2% of the 94 patients who had the test. Approved doses of nivolumab (3 m/kg) and pembrolizumab (200 mg) were administered in 70.4% and 53% of patients, respectively. The analysis of risk factor of thyroid-related adverse reaction did not show statistically significant differences (Cox regression). Conclusion: Thyroid-related adverse events are common in patients treated with PD-1 inhibitors and hypothyroidism is the most frequent adverse reaction. Routine TFTs monitoring is strongly recommended to evaluate thyroid function in real-world clinical practice.

• The Journal of Internal Korean Medicine
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• v.40 no.4
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• pp.709-722
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• 2019

Objective: The purpose of this study was to report the effect of traditional Korean medicine (TKM) in alleviating the side effects of lung cancer patient undergoing immunotherapy. Method: A 43-year-old man, who was diagnosed with non-small cell lung cancer, received pembrolizumab treatments. The patient was treated with acupuncture and herbal medicine (Geoeoyangpye-tang) to control various uncomfortable symptoms. The degree of pain was measured by the numeric rating scale (NRS). The European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Questionnaire, Core 30 (EORTC QLQ-C30) and the EORTC 13-item lung cancer-specific module (EORTC LC-13 questionnaire) were used to assess the change in the quality of life. Results: After the TKM treatment, the flank pain and arthralgia based on the NRS were significantly improved. Various uncomfortable symptoms such as fatigue, dyspnea, insomnia, and loss of appetite were also significantly improved, based on the EORTC QLQ-C30 and EORTC QLQ-LC13. The size of the primary tumor was decreased during treatment. The disease status was stable radiologically after two months from discharge.

• Radiation Oncology Journal
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• v.37 no.3
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• pp.149-155
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• 2019

In metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), the role of radiotherapy (RT) has been limited to palliation to alleviate the symptoms. However, with the development of advanced RT techniques, recent advances in immuno-oncology therapy targeting programmed death 1 (PD-1) and programmed death ligand 1 (PD-L1) and targeted agents for epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutation or anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) translocation allowed new roles of RT in these patients. Within this metastatic population, there is a subset of patients with a limited number of sites of metastatic disease, termed as oligometastasis that can achieve long-term survival from aggressive local management. There is no consensus on the definition of oligometastasis; however, most clinical trials define oligometastasis as having 3 to 5 metastatic lesions. Recent phase II randomized clinical trials have shown that ablative RT, including stereotactic ablative body radiotherapy (SABR) and hypofractionated RT, to primary and metastatic sites improved progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) in patients with oligometastatic NSCLC. The PEMBRO-RT study, a randomized phase II study comparing SABR prior to pembrolizumab therapy and pembrolizumab therapy alone, revealed that the addition of SABR improved the overall response, PFS, and OS in patients with advanced NSCLC. The efficacy of RT in oligometastatic lung cancer has only been studied in phase II studies; therefore, large-scale phase III studies are needed to confirm the benefit of local ablative RT in patients with oligometastatic NSCLC. Local intensified RT to primary and metastatic lesions is expected to become an important treatment paradigm in the near future in patients with metastatic lung cancer.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.87 no.1
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• pp.31-39
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• 2024

After the successful development of targeted therapy and immunotherapy for the treatment of advanced-stage non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), these innovative treatment options are rapidly being applied in the adjuvant setting for early-stage NSCLC. Some adjuvants that have recently been approved include osimertinib for epidermal growth factor receptor-mutated tumors and atezolizumab and pembrolizumab for selected patients with resectable NSCLC. Numerous studies on various targeted therapies and immunotherapy with or without chemotherapy are currently ongoing in the adjuvant setting. However, several questions regarding optimal strategies for adjuvant treatment remain unanswered. The present review summarizes the available literature, focusing on recent advances and ongoing trials with targeted therapy and immunotherapy in the adjuvant treatment of early-stage NSCLC.