Predictive Value of Tumor Mutation Burden for PD-1/PD-L1 Inhibitors Treatment on Non-small Cell Lung Cancer: A Meta-analysis

Objective To investigate the relation between TMB and the efficiency of PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors treatment for non-small-cell lung cancer.

Methods Studies were searched from PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library database, Chinese Biomedical Literature Database and Wanfang Database up to March 25, 2020. RevMan 5.3 software and STATA15.0 were used for analysis.

Results Twelve literatures were involved, including 1209 patients. TMB significantly improved PFS (HR=0.54, 95%CI: 0.42-0.70, P < 0.001) but reduced the ORR (OR=4.41, 95%CI: 2.54-7.63, P < 0.001) of NSCLC patients treated with PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors. The subgroup analyses showed that the predictive value of TMB was significant in non-small cell lung cancer treated by PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors combined with anti-CTLA-4 therapy or chemotherapy. No significant publication bias was observed by the Begg's test and Egger's test.

Conclusion High tumor mutation burden may predict the improved PFS of non-small cell lung cancer by PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors treatment, but its predictive value for OS, ORR and long-term survival need more exploration.