BackgroundHepatitis B virus (HBV) reactivation is a serious complication in patients with cancers and HBV infection undergoing immunosuppressant treatment or chemotherapy. However, the safety of anti-programmed cell death (PD) -1 and anti-programmed cell death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) therapy in these patients is unknown because they were excluded from clinical trials of immunotherapy.MethodsThis retrospective cohort study involved consecutive hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) -positive cancer patients who were referred to Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center and received an anti-PD-1/PD-L1 antibody between January 1, 2015 and July 31, 2018. The primary end point was the rate of the occurrence of HBV reactivation.ResultsIn total, 114 eligible patients were included, among whom 90 (79%) were male, and the median (range) age was 46 (16–76) years. Six patients (5.3%) developed HBV reactivation, occurring at a median of 18 weeks (range, 3–35 weeks) from the commencement of immunotherapy. Among these patients, all of them had undetectable baseline HBV DNA; one had prophylactic antiviral therapy while five did not; four were positive for Hepatitis B e antigen while the other two were negative. At reactivation, the median HBV DNA level was 3.89 × 104 IU/mL (range, 1.80 × 103–6.00 × 107 IU/mL); five had HBV-related hepatitis and one exhibited increasing HBV DNA level without alanine transaminase elevation. No HBV-related fatal events occurred. The lack of antiviral prophylaxis was the only significant risk factor for HBV reactivation (odds ratio, 17.50 [95% CI, 1.95–157.07], P = .004).ConclusionsHBV reactivation occurs in a subset of HBsAg-positive cancer patients undergoing anti-PD-1 or anti-PD-L1 immunotherapy. Regular monitoring of HBV DNA and antiviral prophylaxis are advised to prevent this potentially fatal complication.

BackgroundImmune-checkpoint inhibitors plus chemotherapy are emerging as effective first-line treatment in advanced non-small-cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC), but little is known about the magnitude of benefits and potential clinical predictors.MethodsWe performed a meta-analysis of randomized trials that compared PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitor plus chemotherapy with chemotherapy in first line of treatment for advanced NSCLC. The outcomes included progression-free survival (PFS), overall survival (OS), objective response rate (ORR) and treatment-related adverse events (AEs). A fixed-effect or random-effects model was adopted depending on between-study heterogeneity.ResultsSix trials involving 3144 patients were included. PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitor plus chemotherapy was significantly associated with improvement of PFS (hazards ratio [HR], 0.62; 95% CI 0.57–0.67; P < .001), OS (HR, 0.68; 95% CI 0.53–0.87; P = .002) and ORR (relative ratio [RR], 1.56; 95% CI 1.29–1.89; P < .001), irrespective of PD-L1 expression level. The significant predictor(s) for treatment benefit with combination therapy versus chemotherapy alone were PD-L1 expression level for PFS (P < .001); types of checkpoint inhibitor for ORR (P < .001); histology (P = .025), age (P = .038), gender (P < .001), and types of checkpoint inhibitor (P < .001) for OS. In safety analyses, PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitor plus chemotherapy had significantly higher incidence of adverse events (AEs) of grade 3 or higher (RR, 1.14; P = .007), AEs leading to treatment discontinuation (RR, 1.29; P = .022), serious AEs (RR 1.70; P = .006), immune mediated AEs of any grade (RR, 2.37; P < .001), and immune mediated AEs of grade 3 or higher (RR, 3.71; P < .001).ConclusionsPD-1/PD-L1 inhibitor plus chemotherapy, compared with chemotherapy, is associated with significantly improved PFS, ORR, and OS in first-line therapy in NSCLC, at the expense of increased treatment-related AEs.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1186/s40425-018-0477-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Castleman disease (CD) is a rare lymphoproliferative disorder. To assess the clinical features, outcomes, and prognostic factors of this disease, we retrospectively analyzed 185 HIV‐negative CD patients from four medical centers in southern China. The median age was 37 years. One hundred and twenty‐one patients (65.4%) were classified as unicentric CD (UCD) and 64 patients (34.6%) were classified as multicentric CD (MCD). The histology subtype was hyaline‐vascular for 132 patients (71.4%), plasma cell for 50 patients (27%), and mixed type for 3 patients (1.6%). The 5‐year overall survival (OS) of 185 CD cases was 80.3%. All UCD patients underwent surgical excision, whereas the treatment strategies of MCD patients were heterogeneous. The outcome for UCD patients was better than MCD patients, with 5‐year OS rates of 93.6% and 51.2%, respectively. In further analysis of the MCD subgroup, a multivariate analysis using a Cox regression model revealed that age, splenomegaly and pretreatment serum albumin level were independent prognostic factors for OS. This multicenter study comprising the largest sample size to date suggested that MCD is a distinct entity from UCD with a significantly worse outcome. Older age (≥40 years), splenomegaly, and hypoalbuminemia were risk factors for poorer MCD prognosis.

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Advanced natural killer/T cell lymphoma (NKTL) has demonstrated poor prognosis with currently available therapies. Here, we report the efficacy of anti-programmed death 1 (PD-1) antibody with the P-GEMOX (pegaspargase, gemcitabine, and oxaliplatin) regimen in advanced NKTL. Nine patients underwent six 21-day cycles of anti-PD-1 antibody (day 1), pegaspargase 2000 U/m2 (day 1), gemcitabine 1 g/m2 (days 1 and 8) and oxaliplatin 130 mg/m2 (day 1), followed by anti-PD-1 antibody maintenance every 3 weeks. Programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) expression and genetic alterations were determined in paraffin-embedded pretreatment tissue samples using immunohistochemistry and next-generation sequencing (NGS) analysis. Responses were assessed using 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (18FDG-PET) and computed tomography or magnetic resonance imaging. Eight patients exhibited significant responses, comprising of seven complete remissions and one partial remission (overall response rate: 88.9%). After a median follow-up of 10.6 months, 6/9 patients (66.7%) remained in complete remission. The most common grade 3/4 adverse events were anemia (33.3%), neutropenia (33.3%), and thrombocytopenia (33.3%); all of which were manageable and resolved. Immunochemotherapy produced a high response rate in patients with positive PD-L1 expression (5/6, 83.3%). NGS analysis suggested that STAT3/JAK3/PD-L1 alterations and ARID1A mutation were associated with immunochemotherapy efficacy. Mutation in DDX3X and alteration in epigenetic modifiers of KMT2D, TET2, and BCORL1 might indicate a poor response to immunochemotherapy. In conclusion, the anti-PD-1 antibody plus P-GEMOX regimen demonstrated promising efficacy in advanced NKTL. PD-L1 expression combined with specific genetic alterations could be used as potential biomarkers to predict therapeutic responses to immunochemotherapy.