Onkológia 1/2021

What’s new in immunotherapy for non-small cell lung cancer?

Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI) targeting receptor of programmed death 1(PD-1) or its ligand programmed death ligand 1 (PD-L1) are important components of first-line treatment of metastatic non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) without actionable driver mutations. PD-L1 expression on tumor and/or immune cells helps identify patients with NSCLC who experience better outcomes with this treatment class. There is minority of patients who achieve this durable benefit from immunotherapy, important questions remain about how treatment should be selected and managed for individual patients. Optimal predictive factors for ICI are still looking for. Up to today, the expression PD-L1 on tumor cells by immunohistochemistry (IHC) is only approved biomarker. In this review, we summarize results from clinical trials that have evaluated ICI in long-term survivals , in adjuvant, neoadjuvant setting also combination immunotherapy with/without chemotherapy in metastatic NSCLC.

Keywords: immunotherapy, immune checkpoint inhibitors, non-small cell lung cancer, first line, combination therapy