Impact of comorbidities on outcomes in patients with advanced head and neck cancer undergoing immunotherapy

Abstract

AbstractObjectivesTo explore the impact of pre‐existing comorbidities on immunotherapy response, overall and progression‐free survival, and immune‐related adverse events (irAEs) of patients with advanced head and neck cancer (HNC) treated with immunotherapy.Patients and methodsNinety‐three patients treated with immunotherapy were identified and stratified into comorbidity absent or present (CCI < 1 and CCI ≥ 1, respectively) cohorts, and clinical outcomes were compared between these two groups.ResultsPatients with no comorbidities had longer overall survival (aHR = 2.74, 95% CI [1.18, 6.40], p = 0.02) and progression‐free survival (aHR = 2.07, 95% CI [1.03, 4.16], p = 0.04) and a higher tumor response rate (32% in CCI < 1 vs. 14% in CC ≥ 1, p = 0.05). Risk for irAEs was higher in the comorbidity absent group (p = 0.05).ConclusionComorbidity should be considered as a significant prognostic factor in clinical decision‐making for patients with advanced HNC undergoing immunotherapy.