Mechanisms of immune evasion and current status of checkpoint inhibitors in non-small cell lung cancer

Abstract

In the past several years, immunotherapy has emerged as a viable treatment option for patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) without actionable driver mutations that have progressed on standard chemotherapy. We are also beginning to understand the methods of immune evasion employed by NSCLC which likely contribute to the 20% response rate to immunotherapy. It is also yet unclear what tumor or patient factors predict response to immunotherapy. The objectives of this review are (1) review the immunogenicity of NSCLC (2) describe the mechanisms of immune evasion (3) summarize efforts to target the anti-program death-1 (PD-1) and anti-program death-ligand 1(PD-L1) pathway (4) outline determinants of response to PD-1/PD-L1 therapy and (5) discuss potential future areas for research.

Keywords: Determinants of response; PD-1; PD-L1; immune evasion; non-small cell lung cancer.