Pembrolizumab Exposure-Response Assessments Challenged by Association of Cancer Cachexia and Catabolic Clearance

To investigate the relationship of pembrolizumab pharmacokinetics (PK) and overall survival (OS) in patients with advanced melanoma and non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

PK dependencies in OS were evaluated across three pembrolizumab studies of either 200 mg or 2 to 10 mg/kg every 3 weeks (Q3W). Kaplan-Meier plots of OS, stratified by dose, exposure, and baseline clearance (CL₀), were assessed per indication and study. A Cox proportional hazards model was implemented to explore imbalances of typical prognostic factors in high/low NSCLC CL₀ subgroups.

A total of 1,453 subjects were included: 340 with pembrolizumab-treated melanoma, 804 with pembrolizumab-treated NSCLC, and 309 with docetaxel-treated NSCLC. OS was dose independent from 2 to 10 mg/kg for pembrolizumab-treated melanoma [HR = 0.98; 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.94-1.02] and NSCLC (HR = 0.98; 95% CI, 0.95-1.01); however, a strong CL₀-OS association was identified for both cancer types (unadjusted melanoma HR = 2.56; 95% CI, 1.72-3.80 and NSCLC HR = 2.64; 95% CI, 1.94-3.57). Decreased OS in subjects with higher pembrolizumab CL₀ paralleled disease severity markers associated with end-stage cancer anorexia-cachexia syndrome. Correction for baseline prognostic factors did not fully attenuate the CL₀-OS association (multivariate-adjusted CL₀ HR = 1.64; 95% CI, 1.06-2.52 for melanoma and HR = 1.88; 95% CI, 1.22-2.89 for NSCLC).

These data support the lack of dose or exposure dependency in pembrolizumab OS for melanoma and NSCLC between 2 and 10 mg/kg. An association of pembrolizumab CL₀ with OS potentially reflects catabolic activity as a marker of disease severity versus a direct PK-related impact of pembrolizumab on efficacy. Similar data from other trials suggest such patterns of exposure-response confounding may be a broader phenomenon generalizable to antineoplastic mAbs.See related commentary by Coss et al., p. 5787.