Outcomes With Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors Similar for Older, Younger Patients
By Elana Gotkine HealthDay Reporter
TUESDAY, April 29, 2025 -- Patients with cancer aged 65 years and older receiving immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) derive similar clinical outcomes as younger patients, according to a study published online April 21 in Nature Communications.
Chester Kao, M.D., Ph.D., from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, and colleagues analyzed prospectively collected blood samples from 104 patients with cancer receiving ICIs to examine how the aged immune system affects ICI cancer therapies.
The researchers found that 54 patients aged older than 65 years had similar clinical outcomes to 50 younger patients. Divergent immune phenotypes were seen in older patients at baseline that persisted during ICI therapy, including reduced cytokine responses and reduced pools of naive T cells with increased relative expression of immune checkpoint molecules that were not seen in younger patients; older responders had more robust effector T cell expansion compared with older nonresponders.
"Although the overall clinical benefit of ICI treatment is maintained in aged patients, the divergent immune features observed in this study [imply] that tailored combination approaches may be needed to improve ICI outcomes for aged versus younger cancer patients," the authors write.
Several authors disclosed ties to the biopharmaceutical industry.
Disclaimer: Statistical data in medical articles provide general trends and do not pertain to individuals. Individual factors can vary greatly. Always seek personalized medical advice for individual healthcare decisions.
© 2025 HealthDay. All rights reserved.
Posted April 2025
Read this next
Declining Childhood Vaccination May Increase Risk for Vaccine-Preventable Infections
WEDNESDAY, April 30, 2025 -- Declining childhood vaccination rates may increase outbreaks of eliminated vaccine-preventable infections within the United States, leading to a...
AACR: Incidence-Based Mortality Dropping for Young Women With Breast Cancer
TUESDAY, April 29, 2025 -- Incidence-based mortality (IBM) declined from 2010 to 2020 among women aged 20 to 49 years diagnosed with breast cancer, according to a study presented...
AACR: Nonsurgical Treatment Feasible for Mismatch Repair-Deficient Tumors
TUESDAY, April 29, 2025 -- A neoadjuvant programmed cell death 1 (PD-1) blockade enables nonoperative management among patients with early-stage mismatch repair-deficient (dMMR)...
More news resources
- FDA Medwatch Drug Alerts
- Daily MedNews
- News for Health Professionals
- New Drug Approvals
- New Drug Applications
- Drug Shortages
- Clinical Trial Results
- Generic Drug Approvals
Subscribe to our newsletter
Whatever your topic of interest, subscribe to our newsletters to get the best of Drugs.com in your inbox.