Association between comorbidities and survival in patients with metastatic urothelial carcinoma treated with pembrolizumab

This study aims to investigate the relationship between comorbidities and survival in patients with mUC treated with pembrolizumab as a second-line treatment.

From February 2018 to October 2021, we analyzed the data of 185 consecutive patients with metastatic UC who received pembrolizumab as second-line therapy at The Jikei University Hospital and five affiliated hospitals. We used the Charlson Comorbidity Index (CCI) to assess the comorbidities. The outcomes of interest were progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS). To compare the survival differences, inverse probability of treatment weighting (IPTW)–adjusted Kaplan–Meier curves and the IPTW-adjusted Cox regression hazards model were used.

After IPTW adjustment, patient characteristics were well-balanced between patients with high CCI and those with low CCI. The IPTW-adjusted Kaplan–Meier curves of PFS and OS based on CCI revealed that the patients with high CCI (2 or more) had a shorter PFS (median, 1.6 vs. 2.8 months) and a shorter OS (median, 12.4 vs. 18.8 months) (0–1). Similarly, in the IPTW-adjusted Cox regression hazards model, patients with high CCI had significantly shorter PFS [HR, 1.84 (95% CI 1.26–2.68; p = 0.002)] and OS [HR, 1.98 (95% CI 1.20–3.27; p = 0.008)] than those with lower CCI.

High CCI was associated with a higher risk of disease progression as well as overall mortality in mUC patients treated with second-line pembrolizumab.