Moving Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors to Early Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer: A Narrative Review

Abstract

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related death worldwide. Since prognosis of early-stage non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) remains dismal for common relapses after curative surgery, considerable efforts are currently focused on bringing immunotherapy into neoadjuvant and adjuvant settings. Previously, perioperative chemotherapy showed only a modest but significative improvement in overall survival. The presence of broad tumor neoantigens load at primary tumor prior to surgery as well as the known immunosuppressive status following resection represent the main rationale for immunotherapy in early disease. Several trials have been conducted in recent years, leading to atezolizumab and nivolumab approval in the adjuvant and neoadjuvant setting, respectively, and perioperative immunotherapy in NSCLC remains a field of active clinical and preclinical investigation. Unanswered questions in perioperative therapy in NSCLC include the optimal sequence and timing of chemotherapy and immunotherapy, the potential of combination strategies, the role of predictive biomarkers for patient selection and the choice of useful endpoints in clinical investigation.

Prognostic value of pretreatment modified Glasgow Prognostic Score in small cell lung cancer: A meta-analysis

“…[2,5] In the past decades, there has been no significant progress in the targeted therapy and immunotherapy of SCLC and most patients could only be treated by traditional chemotherapy and radiation. [6][7][8] The relapse rate of SCLC after first-line treatment is certainly high and it is believed that the current staging system is not sufficient to accurately evaluate survival of SCLC patients. [9,10] Therefore, a lot of indicators which might contribute to the prediction of survival of SCLC patients have been reported in the last several years such as the sarcopenia [11] and lung immune prognostic index (LIPI).…”

“…[ 2 , 5 ] In the past decades, there has been no significant progress in the targeted therapy and immunotherapy of SCLC and most patients could only be treated by traditional chemotherapy and radiation. [ 6 – 8 ]…”