A random case-control matching was performed and patients without a history of smoking maintained a higher risk of disease progression (HR = 1.68 [95% CI: 1.17–2.40], p = 0.0045) and a nonsignificant trend towards a reduced overall survival (OS) (HR = 1.32 [95% CI: 0.84–2.07], p = 0.2205).
The Checkmate 9LA trial ( 82 ) investigated the benefit of nivolumab plus ipilimumab and two cycles of chemotherapy versus chemotherapy alone for patients with advanced NSCLC, and despite the benefit observed in overall survival for the entire cohort in the experimental arm, the subgroup analysis of never-smokers showed a trend towards better outcome with chemotherapy alone, with an OS HR 1.14 (0.66 - 1.97).