No abstract

No abstract

experience a long term benefit from ICI therapy. We report a retrospective analysis of the pre-treatment characteristics and long term outcomes of R/M SCCHN pts that received ICI for at least 12 months and/or discontinued therapy due to grade 3-4 ICI related toxicity.Methods: Between January 2016 and December 2019, 181 R/M SCCHN pts were treated with ICI as second+ line therapy with 26 pts meeting inclusion criteria for this analysis. Descriptive statistics were used to explore study variables.Results: 21 pts (85%) received ICI for at least 12 months and 4 pts (15%) stopped due to toxicity. Sex (M/F) 22/4. Age (mean) 62.2 years. 13 pts received pembrolizumab (50%), 10 pts nivolumab (38%), 3 pts ipilimumab+nivolumab (12%). Tumor sites: oropharynx 11 (42%), oral cavity 7 (27%), others 8 (31%). P16 status positive/negative: 10/16. Median follow-up: 21.5 months.1 year OS 100%. 21 pts (81%) achieved a complete response (CR) and 5 pts (19%) achieved less than a CR (SD: 4 and PR: 1). Pts that obtained a CR had lower pretreatment neutrophil counts (median: 4.07 vs 4.58), neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (NLR) (median 4.03 vs 6.54), platelet to lymphocyte ratio (PLR) (median 243 vs 427) and higher pretreatment levels of lymphocytes (median 0.87 vs 0.60).Conclusions: A small percentage of R/M SCCHN pts will obtain a long term benefit from treatment with ICI. Pretreatment neutrophil and lymphocyte counts in combination with PLR and NLR should be studied as a potential marker for treatment response and a predictor for long term outcomes.