Current practice of pathologic response assessment following chemoimmunotherapy for non‐small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in Germany: first real‐world data from the multicentre Re‐GraDE study

Background Given that pathologists now frequently assess pathologic response following neoadjuvant or perioperative chemoimmunotherapy for NSCLC, we set up a multicentre study to evaluate the current practice of re gression gra ding in Germany (Re‐GraDE NSCLC). Methods 133 cases of NSCLC resection specimens following chemoimmunotherapy (IO) were collected from 9 high‐volume lung cancer centres in Germany. Case characteristics were obtained from pathology reports/electronic medical records. In 107 cases, pretreatment biopsies were available on‐site. Results Residual viable tumour (% RVT) was commonly used to measure therapy response (106/133 resection specimens, 79.7%). The entire tumour bed was submitted for histology in 55.6% of cases; however, in 18%, a tumour bed of ≤3 cm was not completely submitted. Either Junker or IASLC regression grading was applied in 97.7% of primary tumours and 60.2% of lymph nodes with comparable results. Almost half of the tumours (45.9%) showed pathological complete response (pCR and/or regression grade (RG) III) with a very weak correlation between % RVT and pretreatment PD‐L1 TPS ( r 2 = 0.078, P = 0.007). Pretreatment PD‐L1 levels ranged from 0% to 100% (median, 60%) in cases with complete regression, and pCR was observed in 40% of cases with pretreatment PD‐L1 TPS <1%. Conclusions Our multicentre study describes the current practice of histopathological regression grading of NSCLC after IO in Germany, highlighting the widespread use of the Junker system, which is basically comparable to IASLC regression grading. For standardization, we recommend following the IASLC guidelines (submitting of the complete tumour bed if ≤3 cm), while the reporting of % RVT might represent a continuous parameter for therapy response. Our digital nationwide registry, which aims to integrate biopsy results, molecular profiling and % RVT in resection specimens, might develop into a valuable tool to investigate novel predictive biomarkers of IO efficacy.