Revisiting the impact of common medications on immune checkpoint inhibitor efficacy

Using a large national cohort of veterans with advanced non–small cell lung cancer, Brinzevich et al. found that most commonly used medications—including proton pump inhibitors, antibiotics, statins, and opioids—were not associated with diminished immune checkpoint inhibitor efficacy after rigorous confounding control. Associations observed in the immune checkpoint inhibitor cohort were reproduced in chemotherapy‐treated controls, indicating that these drugs functioned as markers of underlying illness rather than true modulators of immunotherapy response.