What pharmacotherapeutics should one use for early stage non-small cell lung cancer?

Non-small cell lung cancer: Emerging molecular targeted and immunotherapeutic agents

Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) represents the most common and fatal type of primary lung malignancies. NSCLC is often diagnosed at later stages and requires systemic therapies. Despite recent advances in surgery, chemotherapy, and targeted molecular therapies the outcomes of NSCLC remain disproportionately poor. Immunotherapy is a rapidly developing area in NSCLC management and presents opportunities for potential improvements in clinical outcomes. Indeed, different immunotherapeutics have been approved for clinical use in various settings for NSCLC. Their promise is especially poignant in light of improved survival and quality of life outcomes. Herein, we comprehensively review emerging NSCLC therapeutics. We discuss the limitations of such strategies and summarize the present status of various immunotherapeutic agents in key patient populations. We also examine the data from ongoing studies in immunotherapy and consider future areas of study, including novel inhibition targets, therapeutic vaccination, tumor genome modification, and improvements to drug delivery systems.

Immunotherapy and Vaccination in Surgically Resectable Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC)

Early-stage NSCLC (stages I and II, and some IIIA diseases) accounts for approximately 30% of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) cases, with surgery being its main treatment modality. The risk of disease recurrence and cancer-related death, however, remains high among NSCLC patients after complete surgical resection. In previous studies on the long-term follow-up of post-operative NSCLC, the results showed that the five-year survival rate was about 65% for stage IB and about 35% for stage IIIA diseases. Platinum-based chemotherapy with or without radiation therapy has been used as a neoadjuvant therapy or post-operative adjuvant therapy in NSCLC, but the improvement of survival is limited. Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) have effectively improved the 5-year survival of advanced NSCLC patients. Cancer vaccination has also been explored and used in the prevention of cancer or reducing disease recurrence in resected NSCLC. Here, we review studies that have focused on the use of immunotherapies (i.e., ICIs and vaccination) in surgically resectable NSCLC. We present the results of completed clinical trials that have used ICIs as neoadjuvant therapies in pre-operative NSCLC. Ongoing clinical trials investigating ICIs as neoadjuvant and adjuvant therapies are also summarized.

Neoadjuvant and Adjuvant Immunotherapy: Opening New Horizons for Patients With Early-Stage Non-small Cell Lung Cancer

Lung cancer is the most common malignant tumor with the highest mortality, and about 84% are non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). However, only a small proportion of patients with newly diagnosed lung tumors can receive curative surgery and have a high risk of postoperative recurrence. At present, there are many perioperative treatment methods being continuously explored, such as chemotherapy and targeted therapy, continuously enriching the content of neoadjuvant and adjuvant therapy in early-stage NSCLC. But disappointingly, for patients with driver gene mutation, the significant disease-free survival (DFS) benefit of targeted drugs failed to translate into overall survival (OS) benefit, and for negative patients, chemotherapy has reached a plateau in improving efficacy and survival. Immunotherapy represented by immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) has been researched in more and more clinical trials in patients with early-stage operable disease, gradually enriching the existing treatments. This review focuses on the research progress of clinical trials of neoadjuvant and adjuvant therapy with ICIs in early-stage NSCLC, the exploration of response evaluation and predictive biomarkers, and the urgent problems to be solved in the future.

The emerging use of immune checkpoint blockade in the adjuvant setting for solid tumors: a review

The use of immune checkpoint inhibitors has been approved in the advanced and metastatic setting for many types of solid tumors. Nonetheless, their role in the adjuvant setting is limited to the treatment of surgically resected melanoma. Ipilimumab was the first immune checkpoint inhibitor approved for this indication, followed by nivolumab and pembrolizumab. Many ongoing trials are evaluating these molecules in the postoperative setting, alone or in combination with other therapies. Preliminary results are promising regarding the treatment of other cutaneous tumors, lung cancers, head and neck squamous cell carcinomas, bladder cancer and renal cell carcinomas. Some data assessing their use for the adjuvant treatment of esophageal, colorectal, ovarian cancer and other solid tumors are similarly emerging.