OBJECTIVES: Treatments for advanced lung cancer patients are promising; however, these treatments help improve outcomes for only a small portion of this patient population. To improve outcomes for advanced lung cancer patients, tailored disease prevention and treatment are needed to account for variations in patient’s environment, lifestyle, and genes. This pilot study examined a curated collection of real-world U.S. data to explore patient demographics, regional variation, and staging across four programmed cell death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) targeting agents to enable precision cancer research.

METHODS: Using structured, de-identified electronic health records data from 17 U.S. centers in the TriNetX network, a cohort of over 74,000 advanced small cell (SCLC) and non–small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients who received PD-L1 immunotherapy was generated. Real-world descriptive statistics were summarized by indication, U.S. region, cancer stage, and treatment. Treatments included pembrolizumab, nivolumab, atezolizumab, and durvalumab.

RESULTS: SCLC accounted for 8,271 (13%) patient records, while the remainder were NSCLC and were distributed as follows: 16,665 (26%) squamous-cell carcinomas, 29,303 (45%) adenocarcinomas, 3,942 (6%) large-cell carcinomas and the remainder specified as other NSCLC (10%). Regional distribution of the data included 36,667 (49%) patients located in the South, 18,464 (25%) in the Northeast, 17,412 (24%) in the Midwest, and 1,542 (2%) with an unknown location. 31,630 patients were identified with advanced lung cancer, defined as stage 3 or greater. Pembrolizumab, nivolumab, durvalumab, and atezolizumab were used to treat 2,447 (45%), 1,893 (35%), 562 (11%), and 481 (9%) patients, respectively.

CONCLUSIONS: These findings demonstrate that real-world data can effectively evaluate lung cancers in various regions, indications, and stages across four PD-L1 targeting agents. These data may provide highly valuable information to support lung cancer research, regulatory interactions, and payer decision-making.