Affiliation:
1. Department of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery University of California San Francisco San Francisco California USA
2. Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging University of California San Francisco San Francisco California USA
3. Department of Medicine University of California San Francisco San Francisco California USA
Abstract
AbstractBackgroundA minority of patients with recurrent/metastatic (R/M) salivary gland cancers (SGCs) benefit from immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs), necessitating reliable biomarkers for ICI response prediction.MethodsRetrospective observational study of R/M SGC patients treated with pembrolizumab between 2016 and 2022, with a primary outcome of 6‐month progression‐free survival (PFS) and secondary outcome of 2‐year overall survival (OS). Univariate and multivariable Cox proportional hazards models were employed.ResultsTwenty R/M SGC patients were included. After adjustment, NLR as a continuous variable was independently associated with 6‐month PFS (HR 1.30, 95% CI 1.10–1.54, p = 0.002) and 2‐year OS (HR 1.33, 95% CI 1.07–1.66, p = 0.010). Similarly, NLR ≥ 5 was associated with higher hazards of progression at 6 months (HR 12.85, 95% CI 2.17–76.16, p = 0.005) and death at 2 years (HR 11.25, 95% CI 1.67–75.77, p = 0.013).ConclusionsHigher pretreatment NLR was independently associated with inferior 6‐month PFS and 2‐year OS in pembrolizumab‐treated R/M SGC patients.