Durable Near-Complete Response to Anti-PD-1 Checkpoint Immunotherapy in a Refractory Malignant Solitary Fibrous Tumor of the Pleura

Abstract

Solitary fibrous tumor of the pleura is a rare and usually benign primary neoplasm arising from mesenchymal cells of the submesothelial tissue. We present here the case of a patient diagnosed with CD34-positive advanced malignant solitary fibrous tumor of the pleura whose disease failed to respond to combination cytotoxic chemotherapy agents, but demonstrated a prompt near-complete response to checkpoint blockade treatment using the anti-programmed death (PD)-1 monoclonal antibody pembrolizumab, based on tumor molecular profiling revealing tumoral expression positivity for both programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) and PD-1. The patient experienced minimal adverse effects from the treatment with durable favorable response lasting up to cycle 26.

Keywords

• Cancer immunotherapy
• Checkpoint blockade
• Solitary fibrous tumor of the pleura
• PD-L1
• PD-1