Background The KEYNOTE‐024 trial demonstrated that pembrolizumab, a PD‐1 inhibitor, significantly improves progression‐free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) in selected patients with previously untreated advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with a PD‐L1 tumor proportion score (TPS) ≥50% and without EGFR/ALK aberrations. The main aim of this study was to report the efficacy and safety profile of pembrolizumab in real‐life conditions. Method This was a French retrospective multicenter longitudinal study of 108 consecutive patients with advanced NSCLC, a PD‐L1 TPS ≥50% and without EGFR/ALK aberrations who were treated by pembrolizumab, in first line. Patient data were obtained from medical files. Results The main characteristics of the cohort were: median age [range] 66.7 [37‐87] years, 64.8% male, 23.1% with a performance status (PS) of 2, and 88.9% current or former smokers. Eighty‐seven percent had stage IV NSCLC at diagnosis, 9.2% untreated brain metastases at inclusion,. With a median follow‐up of 8.2 months, the median PFS was 10.1 months (95% CI, 8.8‐11.4). The objective response rate was 57.3% (complete response 2.7%, partial response 54.6%). Disease control rate was 71.1%. At 6 months, the OS rate estimated was 86.2%. Treatment‐related adverse events (AE) of grade 3 occurred in 8% of patients. There were no grade 4 or 5 AEs. Conclusion In a real‐life cohort of advanced NSCLC patients (including PS 2 and untreated brain metastases), with PD‐L1 TPS ≥50%, pembrolizumab demonstrates similar PFS to the pivotal clinical trial.

Introduction:The optimal management of large cell neuroendocrine cancer of the lung (LCNEC) is unclear, and data regarding anti-programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) antibodies are scarce. This study reports the clinical efficacy of a PD-1 inhibitor in patients with advanced LCNEC.Methods: All patients with stage III to IV LCNEC treated with at least one previous cycle of chemotherapy between January 1, 2015 and December 31, 2018 were reviewed retrospectively. Patients were divided into two groups depending on their exposure to nivolumab as second-line treatment or beyond. The primary objective was to assess nivolumab's efficacy.Results: A total of 51 patients with advanced LCNEC from eight centers were analyzed, including 17 who received nivolumab. The PD-1 inhibitor was used as second-line treatment in 77% of cases, with a median number of eight doses (range: 1-62). After nivolumab treatment, the median overall survival was 12.1 months (95% confidence interval [CI]: 7.10-14.20). The objective response rate was 29.4% (95% CI: 10.3-56.0), and median progression-free survival was 3.9 months (95% CI: 1.68-7.17). The programmed death-ligand 1 status was unknown. There was no difference in the efficacy of first-line chemotherapy; the objective response rate was 23.5% (n ¼ four of 17) in the nivolumab group versus 32.4% (n ¼ 11 of 34) in the conventional treatment group, and progression-free survival was 3.5 months (95% CI: 1.7-4.4) versus 2.1 months (95% CI: 1.4-4.2), respectively. Conclusions:In a real-world setting, nivolumab seems to be an effective second-line treatment in patients with advanced LCNEC. Large prospective studies in this setting are still required.

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This work describes a new preparation of dog pancreatic acini which were used to study amylase release in response to various secretagogues. Neither secretin nor vasoactive intestinal peptide stimulated amylase release from acini. Caerulein, carbachol and human synthetic gastrin G17 stimulated amylase release with the same efficacy, but with different potencies. Bombesin nonapeptide did not show any evidence of a direct stimulatory effect on amylase release. These species-related peculiarities stress the necessity of using the same species when comparing pancreatic cell behaviour in vivo and in vitro.