Comparison of systems for evaluating the effectiveness of modern immunotherapy

Background. Currently, against the background of the appearance of fundamentally new groups of anticancer drugs, namely, immune checkpoint inhibitors, specialized systems have been created to evaluate the effectiveness of this therapy. However, the role and benefits of using specific techniques are still not clear. Objective. Comparison of the use of RECIST 1.1 and IrRC systems in the treatment with ipilimumab and nivolumab in patients with disseminated inoperable skin melanoma, metastatic renal cell carcinoma, and metastatic non-small cell lung cancer. Methods. We evaluated the effectiveness of immunotherapy in three groups of patients (n=67) with disseminated skin melanoma (n=45) treated with ipilimumab, metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (n=12), and renal cell carcinoma (n=10) treated with nivolumab in the second and subsequent treatment lines. The effectiveness of the therapy with immuno-oncological drugs was evaluated using two systems - RECIST 1.1 and IrRC. Results. A certain frequency of discrepancy in the responses of different groups of patients was revealed. For a number of parameters, the use of the IrRC system was more reliable for assessing the tumor response. Conclusion. Understanding the specific mechanisms of action of immune checkpoint inhibitors determines the need to change the requirements for criteria for evaluating the effectiveness of treatment. A rational assessment of their effectiveness will reduce the number of cases of early and unreasonable termination of treatment with modern effective drugs. The results obtained confirm the need for further research in this direction.

RECIST 1.1, IrRC, immunotherapy, ipilimumab, nivolumab, RECIST 1.1, IrRC