VA Ann Arbor Research: Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors Increase Cancer Survival
Ann Arbor VA researchers with the VA Lung Precision Oncology Program and colleagues showed recent immunotherapy drugs, called immune checkpoint inhibitors, substantially increased survival from many different cancer types.
The study compared more than 27,000 Veterans who had a cancer diagnosis and began immune checkpoint inhibitors between 2010 and 2023 to a matched historical group of almost 70,000 who received different treatments prior to the approval of immune checkpoint inhibitors. Immune checkpoint inhibitors resulted in a median of eight months longer survival, depending on cancer type. The largest survival benefits were in patients with non-small cell lung cancer. The findings show the switch to these newer cancer treatments had substantial real-world benefit, including in patient groups often poorly represented in clinical trials. (Cancer Medicine, Nov. 7, 2024)