Immunotherapy in Lung Cancer: Are the Promises of Long-Term Benefit Finally Met?

Abstract

Over the last few years, agents targeting immune checkpoints have shown potential to improve therapeutic outcomes in patients with lung cancer in multiple clinical settings. Inhibitors of PD-1/PD-L1 have been approved for the treatment of different types of lung cancer by the FDA either alone or in combination with chemotherapy or other immune checkpoint inhibitors, such as anti-CTLA-4 agents. The introduction of these agents in clinical practice has revolutionized the therapeutic approach to lung cancer, keeping the promises of long-term benefit in selected patient populations. The therapeutic indications of immunotherapy in lung cancer are rapidly growing, and multiple combinations entered clinical practice or are under active development. Furthermore, the quest for a reliable predictive biomarker is still ongoing to overcome the limits of currently approved tests for patients' selection. In this review, we summarized the current status and progress of anti-PD-1/PD-L1 agents in lung cancer treatment.

Keywords: CTLA-4; Immune checkpoint inhibitors; Immunotherapy; NSCLC; PD-1; PD-L1; SCLC; TMB; bTMB.