DISCUSSION
NSCLC, peripheral neuropathy, dyspnea, lung cancer
DISEASE PROGRESSION, ADVERSE EVENTS, LUNG CANCER, NSCLC, PERIPHERAL NEUROPATHY
In RATIONALE 303, tislelizumab monotherapy demonstrated superior clinical efficacy compared to docetaxel in NSCLC patients who previously failed a platinum‐containing chemotherapy.Overall lung cancer symptoms, as assessed by the QLQ‐LC13 symptom index score, improved at weeks 12 and 18 in the tislelizumab arm, while worsening at weeks 12 and 18 in the docetaxel arm. Improvements in coughing were significantly larger in tislelizumab‐treated patients relative to the docetaxel arm at both weeks 12 and 18. The tislelizumab arm also maintained (week 12) or slightly improved (week 18) in peripheral neuropathy while docetaxel patients worsened at both weeks 12 and 18. Time to deterioration analysis further showed that patients in the tislelizumab arm had a lower risk of experiencing clinically meaningful worsening in overall lung cancer symptom index scale, as well as for specific symptoms such as dyspnea, coughing, and peripheral neuropathy, over the course of treatment.The findings of this study add to the expanding body of literature on the positive impact of PD‐(L)1 inhibitors on HRQoL of patients with advanced NSCLC.The following limitations should be considered. First, an open‐label design was used and therefore patients were not blinded to treatment which could have impacted their responses to the PROs. Second, analysis did not investigate the relationship between PRO endpoints and clinical outcomes or adverse events. Previous studies have found that patients with disease progression experienced less worsening in HRQoL and lung cancer symptoms if treated with a PD‐(L)1 inhibitor compared to patients who received chemotherapy.Previous studies have found that when tislelizumab was added to platinum‐based chemotherapy as a first‐line treatment for sq‐NSCLC and nsq‐NSCLC, there were improvements in global health status, quality of life, and symptoms related to lung cancer.