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Record W4406211711 · doi:10.1016/j.ejcped.2025.100215

The safety and efficacy of immune checkpoint blockade in children, adolescents, and young adults: A systematic review and meta-analysis

2025· review· en· W4406211711 on OpenAlexaff
Pedro Cotta Abrahão Reis, João Evangelista Ponte Conrado, Mariana Macambira Noronha, Luís Felipe Leite da Silva, Erick Figueiredo Saldanha, Jonathan Metts

Bibliographic record

VenueEJC Paediatric Oncology · 2025
Typereview
Languageen
FieldMedicine
TopicCancer Immunotherapy and Biomarkers
Canadian institutionsPrincess Margaret Cancer Centre
Fundersnot available
KeywordsMeta-analysisBlockadeMedicinePsychologyImmune checkpointDevelopmental psychologyInternal medicine

Abstract

fetched live from OpenAlex

Immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) has changed the treatment landscape for many types of adult cancer. However, for children, adolescents, and young adults (CAYAs) clinical experience lags behind that of adults. Therefore, we performed a systematic review and meta-analysis to evaluate the safety and efficacy of ICB in the CAYA population. We searched PubMed, Embase, and Cochrane Library databases for clinical trials evaluating ICB therapies for cancer in CAYA patients. We pooled the incidences of treatment-related adverse events (TRAEs), objective response rates (ORRs), stable disease (SD), and their corresponding confidence intervals (CIs). For the ORR and TRAE endpoints, we performed a subgroup analysis of each drug (PD-1, PD-L1, and CTLA-4) and tumor type. 15 trials were included, comprising 797 patients (median age ranging from 6.5-16.0 years). All-grade TRAE rate of 66% was found (95% CI 60-71), while the proportion of grade 3/4 TRAEs was 19% (95% CI 14-27). For tumor type subgroup analysis of all-grade TRAEs and grade 3/4 TRAEs, solid tumors had the highest rates, 92% (95% CI 41-99) and 32% (95% CI 11-63), respectively. Fatigue, anemia, and nausea were the most frequently reported TRAEs. The ORR was 13% (95% CI 5-27). In subgroup analyses, PD-1 inhibitors and Hodgkin Lymphoma had the highest ORR, with 25% (95% CI 8-56) and 59% (95% CI 23-87), respectively. SD was noted in 21% (95% CI 14-30) of patients. Overall, ICB is well tolerated in CAYA patients with different cancer types, and certain subsets of CAYA cancer are ICB-responsive. • We accessed CAYA patients with cancer treated with immune checkpoint blockade (ICB). • This systematic review and meta-analysis included 15 studies and 797 CAYA patients. • ICBs are well tolerated across various cancer types in CAYA patients. • Certain cancer subtypes in CAYA patients show a positive response to ICBs. • CAYA patients are likely to gain significant benefit from ICB therapy.

Fetched live from OpenAlex and de-inverted. Abstracts are not stored in this database: the inverted indexes are 8.6 GB of the frame’s 9.3 GB of text, and the host has 13 GB free.

How this classification was reachedexpand

Full frame distilled prediction

Teacher imitation

Not calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. Learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and 10,348 direct Gemma labels. Candidate is the union of thresholded teacher heads; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels or direct frontier model labels.

metaresearch head score (Codex)0.002
metaresearch head score (Gemma)0.001
Version: codex-gemma-dda1882f352aValidation status: machine_predicted_unvalidated
Candidate categoriesMeta-epidemiology (narrow)
Consensus categoriesnone
DomainCandidate signal: none · Consensus signal: none
Study designCandidate signal: Meta-analysis · Consensus signal: none
GenreCandidate signal: Review · Consensus signal: Review
Teacher disagreement score0.842
Threshold uncertainty score1.000

Codex and Gemma teacher scores by category

CategoryCodexGemma
Metaresearch0.0020.001
Meta-epidemiology (narrow)0.0000.000
Meta-epidemiology (broad)0.0100.002
Bibliometrics0.0010.002
Science and technology studies0.0000.000
Scholarly communication0.0000.000
Open science0.0000.000
Research integrity0.0000.001
Insufficient payload (model declined to judge)0.0000.000

Machine scores (provisional)

The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.

Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.

Opus teacher head0.017
GPT teacher head0.320
Teacher spread0.303 · how far apart the two teachers sit on this one work
Validation statusscore_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from it

Classification

machine, unvalidated

Machine predicted; a candidate call from one teacher head, not a consensus.

Study designMeta-analysis
Domainnot available
GenreReview

How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".

Quick stats

Citations0
Published2025
Admission routes1
Has abstractyes

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