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Updated: Aug 6, 2026
Percutaneous Contrast Echocardiography-guided Intramyocardial Injection and Cell Delivery in a Large Preclinical Model
Published on: January 21, 2018
Effectiveness and safety of immunotherapy in advanced NSCLC with pericardial effusions: a global retrospective
Talal El Zarif1, Sarah Abou Alaiwi1, Amin H Nassar1
1Yale University School of Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine, New Haven, CT 06510, United States.
Background:
There is limited data on immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) use in patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and known pericardial effusions.
Methods:
This international multi-center observational retrospective study included patients with advanced NSCLC with or without pericardial effusions receiving ICIs. Immune-related adverse events (irAEs) were graded per CTCAE v5.0. Overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) were estimated by the Kaplan-Meier method. Cox proportional hazards multivariable models assessed the association between survival outcomes and clinicopathologic variables, and an inverse probability of treatment weighting (IPTW) model compared outcomes between the two groups.
Results:
A total of 1248 patients with advanced NSCLC treated with ICIs across 13 institutions were included. Of these, 85 patients (6.8%) had pre-existing pericardial effusions. Compared to controls, patients with pericardial effusions were younger (median age 63 vs 67 years, P = .007), diagnosed more frequently with PD-L1 positive tumors (96% vs 76%, P < .001), and had a higher median number of baseline metastatic sites (3 vs 1, P < .001). IrAEs were similar between both groups (42% vs 38%), and no cardiac irAEs occurred in patients with pericardial effusions. PFS (median 5.6 vs 4.6 months, P = .3) and OS (median 10.2 vs 14.7 months, P = .50) were not statistically different between patients with pericardial effusions and the controls, respectively. In both multivariable and IPTW models, pericardial effusions were not associated with PFS or OS.
Conclusions:
Among patients with NSCLC and pre-existing pericardial effusions, ICIs demonstrate meaningful clinical benefit similar to those without effusions, with no new cardiac or severe toxicities.