A recent study supports the increased inclusion of immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) therapy into standard care for patients with extensive-stage small cell lung cancer (SCLC) who reside in Asia as a result of the positive survival outcomes.
A team of researchers from Taiwan conducted the study and published their findings in Current Oncology. They explained why it was important to conduct the research, highlighting the poor prognosis associated with extensive-stage SCLC and the lack of real-world data on immunotherapy-based survival outcomes for patients in Asia.
To further investigate the effectiveness of and role of ICIs and chemotherapy in survival for this patient population, the investigators performed a retrospective cohort study. A total of 114 patients with extensive-stage SCLC, treated between 2017 and 2023 at four medical centers in Taiwan, were included in the retrospective analysis.