Erman Akkus: Immunotherapy at the end-of-life

Erman Akkus, Medical Oncology Fellow at Ankara University, shared on X/Twitter:

“Immunotherapy at the end-of-life

– Immunotherapy initiation within 1 month of death increased over time

– 242,371 patients, metastatic melanoma, NSCLC, RCC
– 29.3% received immunotherapy
– Immunotherapy initiation within 1 month of death increased over the study period:
– Melanoma: from 0.8% to 4.3%
– NSCLC: 0.9% to 3.2%
– RCC: 0.5% to 2.6%
– Nonacademic or very low-volume center> higher end-of-life IO initiation

Questions:
– Is the reason about being less toxic than chemo so that physicians choose IO at the end-of-life?
– Would there be any possibility that IO-related hyperprogression causes more death so that it seems like it is initiated within 1 month of death?”

Source: Erman Akkus/X