Advances in efficacy prediction and monitoring of neoadjuvant immunotherapy for non-small cell lung cancer

Abstract

The use of immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) has become mainstream in the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The idea of harnessing the immune system to fight cancer is fast developing. Neoadjuvant treatment in NSCLC is undergoing unprecedented change. Chemo-immunotherapy combinations not only seem to achieve population-wide treating coverage irrespective of PD-L1 expression but also enable achieving a pathological complete response (pCR). Despite these recent advancements in neoadjuvant chemo-immunotherapy, not all patients respond favorably to treatment with ICIs plus chemo and may even suffer from severe immune-related adverse effects (irAEs). Similar to selection for target therapy, identifying patients most likely to benefit from chemo-immunotherapy may be valuable. Recently, several prognostic and predictive factors associated with the efficacy of neoadjuvant immunotherapy in NSCLC, such as tumor-intrinsic biomarkers, tumor microenvironment biomarkers, liquid biopsies, microbiota, metabolic profiles, and clinical characteristics, have been described. However, a specific and sensitive biomarker remains to be identified. Recently, the construction of prediction models for ICI therapy using novel tools, such as multi-omics factors, proteomic tests, host immune classifiers, and machine learning algorithms, has gained attention. In this review, we provide a comprehensive overview of the different positive prognostic and predictive factors in treating preoperative patients with ICIs, highlight the recent advances made in the efficacy prediction of neoadjuvant immunotherapy, and provide an outlook for joint predictors.

Keywords: biomarkers; chemo-immunotherapy; efficacy prediction; neoadjuvant immunotherapy; non-small cell lung cancer.