Cardiotoxicity with immune system targeting drugs: a meta-analysis of anti-PD/PD-L1 immunotherapy randomized clinical trials.

Background

With antiprogrammed death receptor-1 (anti-PD-L1) therapy, a recent meta-analysis reported higher incidence of cutaneous, endocrine and gastrointestinal complications especially with dual anti-PD-L1 immunotherapy (IMM).

Methods

Our primary outcome was assessment of all cardiotoxicity grades in IMM compared with different treatments, thus a systemic review and a meta-analysis on randomized clinical trials (RCTs) were done.

Results

We included 11 RCTs with 6574 patients (3234 patients in IMM arm vs 3340 patients in the other arm). Three non-small-cell lung cancer RCTs, seven melanoma RCTs and only one prostatic cancer RCT met the inclusion criteria. There were five RCTs that compared monoimmunotherapy to chemotherapy "(n = 2631 patients)". No difference exists in all cardiotoxicity grades or high-grade cardiotoxicity (p > 0.05). Lung cancer exhibited a higher response rate and lower mortality in IMM.

Conclusion

There was no reported statistically significant cardiotoxicity associated with anti-PD/PD-L1 use. Lung cancer subgroups showed better response and survival rates.