Exclusion of Patients with Autoimmune Disease in Lung Cancer Clinical Trials

BACKGROUND: The exclusion of patients with autoimmune disease has been a topic of cancer immunotherapy trial. This study aims to find recent trends in exclusion of autoimmune disease. METHODS: Using the website clinicaltrials.gov, we searched for clinical trials that were initiated in 2012 or later and enrolled patients with lung cancer who were treated with PD-1/PD-L1 therapy. Only trials including US locations were analyzed. RESULTS: A total of 198 trials met screening criteria in this study. There were 68 trials which had complete exclusion of any autoimmune disease in patients. In addition, 13 trials excluded active autoimmune disease and 87 trials excluded active autoimmune disease requiring treatment. The remaining 37 trials had undefined exclusion. Studies that had larger enrollment of patients with autoimmune diseases were largely in industry. The complete exclusion of patients with autoimmune diseases has decreased recently. CONCLUSION: Exclusion of patients with active autoimmune disease requiring treatment was one of the common exclusion criteria found. Strict exclusion of patients with autoimmune diseases has been decreasing over the years.