Nivolumab in Relapsed or Refractory Primary Central Nervous System Lymphoma: Multicenter, Retrospective Study

Given that 40%-50% of primary central nervous system lymphoma (PCNSL) tissues exhibit aberrancy on 9p24.1, immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI) may work for the disease.

To define the role of ICIs in PCNSL, we carried out a nationwide retrospect analysis for 22 patients who had been treated with nivolumab monotherapy for relapsed or refractory PCNSL.

The median age at diagnosis was 66, and male: female ratio was 1:1. Patients received nivolumab after a median of 3 lines (range, 2 to 6) of therapy and at the median age of 67 years (range, 37 to 82 years). Eleven patients (50%) were refractory to the last treatment prior to nivolumab. With a median follow-up duration of 22.3 months (95% confidence interval [CI], 13.1 to 31.5), nine patients (41%) had an objective response (6 complete responses, 3 partial responses), and the median duration of response was 20.9 months (95% CI, 1.7 to 40.0). The median progression-free survival and overall survival were 2.1 months (95% CI, 0.2 to 4.0) and 18.9 months (95% CI, 5.0 to 32.8), respectively. Nivolumab was generally well-tolerated as no patients required dose reduction and only two patients required delay of treatment.

Our study suggests that nivolumab can be a reasonable option with the durable response for RR PCNSL.