# Safety and activity of anti-PD-L1 antibody in patients with advanced cancer

Source: https://onco.cc/key-papers/paper-brahmer-anti-pd-l1-phase-1-nejm-2012/  
OnCo record `paper-brahmer-anti-pd-l1-phase-1-nejm-2012` (Key paper). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from OnCo (onco.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

The first PD-L1 antibody trial treated 207 people across several cancers; melanoma, kidney and lung cancers responded, and none of the 14 pancreatic cancer patients did.

## Summary

In a multicentre phase 1 trial, intravenous anti-PD-L1 antibody at 0.3 to 10 mg/kg was given every 14 days in 6-week cycles for up to 16 cycles to patients with selected advanced cancers. Of 207 patients, 75 had non-small-cell lung cancer, 55 melanoma, 18 colorectal, 17 renal cell, 17 ovarian, 14 pancreatic, 7 gastric and 4 breast cancer. Grade 3 or 4 treatment-related toxicity occurred in 9%. Objective responses were seen in 9 of 52 melanoma, 2 of 17 renal cell, 5 of 49 lung and 1 of 17 ovarian patients; no pancreatic responses were reported.

## Fields

- Kind: Key paper
- Last checked: 2026-09-24
- Journal: New England Journal of Medicine
- Year: 2012
- DOI: 10.1056/NEJMoa1200694
- Authors: Brahmer JR, Tykodi SS, Chow LQ, et al.
- Findings: Objective responses in melanoma, renal cell, lung and ovarian cancer.; None of the 14 pancreatic cancer patients responded.
- What it means: The trial that opened the PD-L1 era for other cancers is also the first evidence that pancreatic cancer would be left out of it.
- Caveats: Fourteen pancreatic patients, unselected.; Early dose-finding design.

## Sources

- Brahmer et al., N Engl J Med 2012: anti-PD-L1 in 207 patients, none of 14 pancreatic responded: https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMoa1200694
- PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22658128/

## Connected records

- cancers: [Metastatic pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma](https://onco.cc/cancers/metastatic-pdac/), [Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma](https://onco.cc/cancers/pancreatic/)
- targets: [PD-L1](https://onco.cc/targets/pdl1/)
- pathways: [PD-1 / PD-L1 immune checkpoint & T-cell activation](https://onco.cc/pathways/pd1-checkpoint/)
- terms: [Hot vs cold tumours](https://onco.cc/terms/cold-vs-hot/)
- journals: [New England Journal of Medicine](https://onco.cc/journals/nejm/)

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