Sugemalimab for Post-PD-1 Progression in Non-small Cell Lung Cancer

This single-center, retrospective real-world study investigated the effectiveness and safety of sugemalimab-based rechallenge in patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer who experienced disease progression after prior programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) inhibitor therapy. Eligible patients had previously achieved clinical benefit (progression-free survival [PFS] ≥6 mo), an Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) performance status of 0-1, and no actionable driver alterations. Nineteen patients received sugemalimab every 3 weeks as monotherapy or in combination with chemotherapy and/or antiangiogenic agents. The objective response rate was 26.3% (5/19; 95% CI: 9.1-51.2), and the disease control rate was 89.5% (17/19; 95% CI: 66.9-98.7), with a median PFS of 4.4 months. Higher programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) tumor proportion score (TPS) correlated with prolonged PFS (TPS ≥50% vs. TPS <1%: 6.1 vs. 2.8 mo; hazard ratio (HR) 0.4, 95% CI: 0.1-0.8). Hypothyroidism was the most common treatment-related adverse event, while grade 3/4 events were uncommon. These findings indicate measurable activity of sugemalimab-based rechallenge in a pre-enriched population and support prospective validation with biomarker-informed stratification.