Analysis on immune checkpoint inhibitors for elder patients: benefits and costs relative to chemotherapy

Abstract

Immune checkpoint inhibitors are a breakthrough in cancer treatment that utilizes the patient’s own immune defense systems to very specifically target tumors and cure cancers. The treatment achieved high levels of success within its clinical trials and entered the market. However, these clinical trials are very limited on the interactions of immune checkpoint inhibitors and the elderly, which make up a large portion of cancer patients. This investigation, therefore, aims to clarify some of the potential problems that may arise with using immune checkpoint inhibitors in the elderly and compare the benefits and costs relative to chemotherapy by collecting and assorting available data from various systematic and clinical studies. Contrary to intuition, our findings do not suggest a large direct decrease in efficacy of immune checkpoint inhibitors within the elderly when compared to younger patients, but many situations that can be associated with old age such as cardiovascular disease, autoimmune disease, immunosenescense, can affect the rate of adverse effects and rate of innate resistance to immune checkpoint inhibitors.