External validation of hemoglobin and neutrophil levels as predictors of the effectiveness of ipilimumab plus nivolumab for treating renal cell carcinoma

Shuzo Hamamoto; Yoshihiko Tasaki; Shimpei Yamashita; Junya Furukawa; Kazutoshi Fujita; Ryotaro Tomida; Makito Miyake; Noriyuki Ito; Hideto Iwamoto; Yosuke Sugiyama; Kazumi Taguchi; Takahiro Yasui

doi:10.3389/fonc.2024.1400041

External validation of hemoglobin and neutrophil levels as predictors of the effectiveness of ipilimumab plus nivolumab for treating renal cell carcinoma

Front Oncol. 2024 Sep 2:14:1400041. doi: 10.3389/fonc.2024.1400041. eCollection 2024.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Department of Nephro-urology, Nagoya City University Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Nagoya, Japan.
² Department of Clinical Pharmaceutics, Nagoya City University Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Nagoya, Japan.
³ Department of Urology, Wakayama Medical University, Wakayama, Japan.
⁴ Department of Urology, Kobe University Graduate School of Medicine, Kobe, Japan.
⁵ Department of Urology, Kindai University Faculty of Medicine, Osakasayama, Japan.
⁶ Department of Urology, Tokushima University Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Tokushima, Japan.
⁷ Department of Urology, Nara Medical University, Kashihara, Japan.
⁸ Department of Urology, Japanese Red Cross Wakayama Medical Center, Wakayama, Japan.
⁹ Division of Urology, Department of Surgery, Tottori University Faculty of Medicine Graduate School of Medicine, Tottori, Japan.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Introduction: Pretreatment hemoglobin and neutrophil levels were previously reported to be important indicators for predicting the effectiveness of ipilimumab plus nivolumab (IPI + NIVO) therapy for renal cell carcinoma (RCC). Therefore, we aimed to validate this in a large external cohort.

Methods: In total, 172 patients with RCC who underwent IPI + NIVO treatment at a multicenter setting were divided into three groups according to their pretreatment hemoglobin and neutrophil levels (group 1: non-anemia; group 2: anemia and low-neutrophil; and group 3: anemia and high-neutrophil).

Results: Group 1 showed better survival than groups 2 and 3 (overall survival: 52.3 vs. 21.4 vs. 9.4 months, respectively; progression-free survival: 12.1 vs. 7.0 vs. 3.4 months, respectively).

Discussion: In this large cohort, we validated our earlier observation that hemoglobin and neutrophil levels can be reliable predictors of the effectiveness of IPI + NIVO in advanced RCC. Thus, our approach may aid in selecting the optimal first-line therapy for RCC.

Keywords: external validation; hemoglobin; ipilimumab plus nivolumab; neutrophil; renal cell carcinoma.

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This work was funded by the Nitto Foundation.