Accumulated evidence supports the existence of sex-associated differences in immune systems. Understanding the role of sex in immune-related adverse events (irAEs) is important for management of irAE in patients receiving immunotherapy. We performed meta-analysis on published clinical study data and multivariable logistic regression on pharmacovigilance data and applied a propensity algorithm to The Cancer Genome Atlas omics data. We further validated our observations in 2 independent in-house cohorts of 179 and 767 cancer patients treated with immune checkpoint inhibitors. A meta-analysis using 13 clinical studies that reported on 1096 female patients (36.8%, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 35.0% to 38.5%) and 1886 male patients (63.2%, 95% CI = 61.5% to 65.0%) demonstrated no statistically significant irAE risk difference between the sexes (odds ratio [OR] = 1.19, 95% CI = 0.91 to 1.54, 2-sided P = .21). Multivariable logistic regression analysis of 12 225 patients from the Food and drug administration Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS) and 10 979 patients from VigiBase showed no statistically significant difference in irAEs by sex. A propensity score algorithm used on multi-omics data for 6019 patients from The Cancer Genome Atlas found no statistically significant difference by sex for irAE-related factors or pathways. The retrospective analysis of 2 in-house patient cohorts validated these results (OR = 1.55, 95% CI = 0.98 to 2.47, false discovery rate = 0.13, for cohort 1; OR = 1.16, 95% CI = 0.86 to 1.57, false discovery rate = 0.39, for cohort 2). We observed minimal sex-associated differences in irAEs among cancer patients who received immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy. It may be unnecessary to consider sex effects for irAE management in clinical practice.

Sacituzumab tirumotecan (sac-TMT) is an antibody-drug conjugate targeting trophoblast cell-surface antigen 2 that has shown significant survival benefits in patients with EGFR-mutated non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) that has progressed after epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) therapy and platinum-based chemotherapy. In this phase 3 trial, we enrolled patients with EGFR-mutated locally advanced or metastatic nonsquamous NSCLC that had progressed after EGFR-TKI therapy. The patients were randomly assigned, in a 1:1 ratio, to receive sac-TMT monotherapy or pemetrexed plus platinum-based chemotherapy. The primary end point was progression-free survival as assessed by blinded independent review. Overall survival was a hierarchically tested key secondary end point. In the interim analysis of progression-free survival as assessed by blinded independent review, sac-TMT monotherapy met the prespecified criterion for significance (two-sided P<0.0001); we report here the prespecified final analysis of progression-free survival and the preplanned interim analysis of overall survival. Overall, 376 patients underwent randomization, with 188 assigned to each group. After a median follow-up of 18.9 months, the median progression-free survival was 8.3 months in the sac-TMT group and 4.3 months in the chemotherapy group (hazard ratio for disease progression or death, 0.49; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.39 to 0.62). Overall survival was significantly longer with sac-TMT than with chemotherapy (hazard ratio for death, 0.60; 95% CI, 0.44 to 0.82; two-sided P = 0.001); 18-month overall survival was 65.8% and 48.0%, respectively. Treatment-related adverse events of grade 3 or higher occurred in 58.0% of patients receiving sac-TMT and in 53.8% of those receiving chemotherapy, with the most common being a decreased neutrophil count (39.9% vs. 33.0%); treatment-related serious adverse events occurred in 9.0% and 17.6%, respectively. In patients with EGFR-mutated advanced or metastatic NSCLC that had progressed after previous EGFR-TKI therapy, progression-free survival and overall survival outcomes were significantly better with sac-TMT than with platinum-based chemotherapy. (Funded by Sichuan Kelun-Biotech Biopharmaceutical; OptiTROP-Lung04 ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT05870319.).

PURPOSE: Taletrectinib is an oral, potent, CNS-active, selective, next-generation ROS1 tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI). We report integrated efficacy and safety from registrational taletrectinib studies in ROS1 + non–small cell lung cancer. METHODS: TRUST-I and TRUST-II were phase II, single-arm, open-label, nonrandomized, multicenter trials. Efficacy outcomes were pooled from TRUST-I and TRUST-II pivotal cohorts. The safety population comprised all patients treated with once-daily oral taletrectinib 600 mg pooled across the taletrectinib clinical program. The primary end point was independent review committee–assessed confirmed objective response rate (cORR). Secondary outcomes included intracranial (IC)-ORR, progression-free survival (PFS), duration of response (DOR), and safety. RESULTS: As of June 7, 2024, the efficacy-evaluable population included 273 patients in TRUST-I and TRUST-II. Among TKI-naïve patients (n = 160), the cORR was 88.8% and the IC-cORR was 76.5%; in TKI-pretreated patients (n = 113), the cORR was 55.8% and the IC-cORR was 65.6%. In TKI-naïve patients, the median DOR and median PFS were 44.2 and 45.6 months, respectively. In TKI-pretreated patients, the median DOR and median PFS were 16.6 and 9.7 months. The cORR in patients with G2032R mutation was 61.5% (8 of 13). Among 352 patients treated with taletrectinib 600 mg once daily, the most frequent treatment-emergent adverse events (TEAEs) were GI events (88%) and elevated AST (72%) and ALT (68%); most were grade 1. Neurologic TEAEs were infrequent (dizziness, 21%; dysgeusia, 15%) and mostly grade 1. TEAEs leading to discontinuations (6.5%) were low. CONCLUSION: Taletrectinib showed a high response rate with durable responses, robust IC activity, prolonged PFS, favorable safety, and low rates of neurologic adverse events in TKI-naïve and pretreated patients.