Baseline characteristics of patients with cancer in the immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) exposure and non-exposure groups
| ICI exposure | P value* | |||||
| Nivolumab (n=1972) | Pembrolizumab (n=2593) | Atezolizumab (n=472) | Total ICI exposure (n=5037) | ICI non-exposure (n=136,513) | ||
| Age, year, mean (SD) | 65.8 (9.7) | 65.5 (10.2) | 67.7 (9.9) | 65.8 (10.0) | 68.5 (11.1) | <0.001 |
| Sex | <0.001 | |||||
| Male | 1522 (77.2) | 1858 (71.7) | 372 (78.8) | 3752 (74.5) | 92 050 (67.4) | |
| Female | 450 (22.8) | 735 (28.3) | 100 (21.2) | 1285 (25.5) | 44 463 (32.6) | |
| Type of insurance | <0.001 | |||||
| National Health Insurance | 1779 (90.2) | 2380 (91.8) | 425 (90.0) | 4584 (91.0) | 127 201 (93.2) | |
| Medical aids† | 156 (7.9) | 193 (7.4) | 45 (9.5) | 394 (7.8) | 8495 (6.2) | |
| Veterans | 37 (1.9) | 20 (0.8) | 2 (0.4) | 59 (1.2) | 817 (0.6) | |
| Type of cancer | <0.001 | |||||
| NSCLC | 1796 (91.1) | 2038 (78.6) | 154 (32.6) | 3988 (79.2) | 94 208 (69.0) | |
| Urothelial carcinoma | 9 (0.5) | 10 (0.4) | 318 (67.4) | 337 (6.7) | 39 268 (28.8) | |
| Melanoma | 167 (8.5) | 545 (21.0) | 0 (0) | 712 (14.1) | 4086 (3.0) | |
| Underlying diseases | ||||||
| Diabetes mellitus | 641 (32.5) | 804 (31.0) | 145 (30.7) | 1590 (31.6) | 39 015 (28.6) | <0.001 |
| Hypertension | 968 (49.1) | 1220 (47.0) | 251 (53.2) | 2439 (48.4) | 71 349 (52.3) | <0.001 |
| Chronic lung disease | 1163 (59.0) | 1392 (294.9) | 210 (44.5) | 2765 (54.9) | 55 289 (40.5) | <0.001 |
| Chronic kidney disease | 72 (3.7) | 72 (15.3) | 55 (11.7) | 199 (4.0) | 6346 (4.6) | 0.02 |
| Chronic liver disease | 37 (1.9) | 34 (7.2) | 6 (1.3) | 77 (1.5) | 1506 (1.1) | 0.01 |
| Rheumatic disease | 49 (2.5) | 73 (15.5) | 17 (3.6) | 139 (2.8) | 2873 (2.1) | 0.002 |
| Predisposing factors | ||||||
| History of LTBI treatment | 19 (1.0) | 28 (1.1) | 2 (0.4) | 49 (1.0) | 1686 (1.2) | 0.10 |
| Active chemotherapy | 569 (28.9) | 675 (26.0) | 70 (14.8) | 1314 (26.1) | 31 870 (23.3) | <0.001 |
| Concomitant use of corticosteroid | 459 (23.3) | 533 (20.6) | 71 (15.0) | 1063 (21.1) | 12 603 (9.2) | <0.001 |
| Concomitant use of immunosuppressant | 14 (0.7) | 34 (1.3) | 26 (5.5) | 74 (1.5) | 1889 (1.4) | 0.69 |
Data are n (%).
*Comparison of total ICI exposure group to non-exposure group.
†Medical aid is a public assistance program that targets impoverished people in need of medical assistance as part of the South Korean social welfare program.
LTBI, latent tuberculosis infection; NSCLC, non-small cell lung cancer.