Successful treatment of advanced pulmonary sarcomatoid carcinoma with the PD-1 inhibitor toripalimab: A case report

Abstract

Introduction: Pulmonary sarcomatoid carcinoma (PSC) is a rare subtype of non-small cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC), which characterized by insensitive to conventional radiotherapy and chemotherapy and poor prognosis. Except MET exon 14 alterations and other oncogene mutations, PSC commonly harbor high tumor mutational burden (TMB) and high level of PD-L1, which provide new therapeutic opportunities. Toripalimab (JS001) is IgG4 monoclonal antibody targeting PD-1, which has been approved for treatment of patients with metastatic melanoma after previous systemic therapy. PD-1 combined with radiotherapy has been tried in several cancer types.

Case presentation: We reported a case of a PSC patient with PD-L1 overexpression responding to toripalimab and after progression the patients also benefits from toripalimab combined with local radiotherapy, which provides a promising option for PSC patients.

Conclusion: This case provides the evidence of the effective role of toripalimab and PD-1 combined with local radiotherapy in PSC patients, which was the first application as far as we know.

Keywords: High level of PD-L1; PD-1 inhibitor; Pulmonary sarcomatoid carcinoma; Toripalimab; Toripalimab combined with thoracic radiotherapy.