Rethinking pulmonary toxicity in advanced non-small cell lung cancer in the era of combining anti-PD-1/PD-L1 therapy with thoracic radiotherapy

Abstract

The combination of programmed cell death 1/programmed cell death ligand 1 blockade and thoracic radiotherapy has become the new standard of care in the treatment of locally advanced non-small-cell lung cancer. The information regarding the pulmonary safety of such therapy remains limited to mostly retrospective studies and case reports with a small portion of data from prospective clinical trials. By analyzing the underlying mechanisms of interactions between radiation and immunotherapy from preclinical data and summarizing safety data from relevant clinical studies with pulmonary toxicity, we believe that longer and rigorous follow-up is warranted, to determine if the combination of such modalities is appropriate for patients without risking undue toxicity.

Keywords: Immunotherapy; Non–small cell lung cancer; Pneumonitis; Programmed cell death 1/programmed cell death ligand 1; Thoracic radiotherapy.