Imaging of Immune Checkpoint Inhibitor Immunotherapy for Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer

Drug-induced Acute Lung Injury: A Comprehensive Radiologic Review

Drug-induced acute lung injury is a significant yet often underrecognized clinical challenge, associated with a wide range of therapeutic agents, including chemotherapy drugs, antibiotics, anti-inflammatory drugs, and immunotherapies. This comprehensive review examines the pathophysiology, clinical manifestations, and radiologic findings of drug-induced acute lung injury across different drug categories. Common imaging findings are highlighted to aid radiologists and clinicians in early recognition and diagnosis. The review emphasizes the importance of immediate cessation of the offending drug and supportive care, which may include corticosteroids. Understanding these patterns is crucial for prompt diagnosis and management, potentially improving patient outcomes.

Radiological assessment of immunotherapy effects and immune checkpoint-related pneumonitis for lung cancer

Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) therapy have revolutionized advanced lung cancer care. Interestingly, the host responses for patients received ICIs therapy are distinguishing from those with cytotoxic drugs, showing potential initial transient worsening of disease burden, pseudoprogression and delayed time to treatment response. Thus, a new imaging criterion to evaluate the response for immunotherapy should be developed. ICIs treatment is associated with unique adverse events, including potential life-threatening immune checkpoint inhibitor-related pneumonitis (ICI-pneumonitis) if treated patients are not managed promptly. Currently, the diagnosis and clinical management of ICI-pneumonitis remain challenging. As the clinical manifestation is often nonspecific, computed tomography (CT) scan and X-ray films play important roles in diagnosis and triage. This article reviews the complications of immunotherapy in lung cancer and illustrates various radiologic patterns of ICI-pneumonitis. Additionally, it is tried to differentiate ICI-pneumonitis from other pulmonary pathologies common to lung cancer such as radiation pneumonitis, bacterial pneumonia and coronavirus disease of 2019 (COVID-19) infection in recent months. Maybe it is challenging to distinguish radiologically but clinical presentation may help.

2021 WHO Classification of Lung Cancer: Molecular Biology Research and Radiologic-Pathologic Correlation

The 2021 World Health Organization (WHO) classification system for thoracic tumors (including lung cancer) contains several updates to the 2015 edition. Revisions for lung cancer include a new grading system for invasive nonmucinous adenocarcinoma that better reflects prognosis, reorganization of squamous cell carcinomas and neuroendocrine neoplasms, and description of some new entities. Moreover, remarkable advancements in our knowledge of genetic mutations and targeted therapies have led to a much greater emphasis on genetic testing than that in 2015. In 2015, guidelines recommended evaluation of only two driver mutations, ie, epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutations and anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) fusions, in patients with nonsquamous non-small cell lung cancer. The 2021 guidelines recommend testing for numerous additional gene mutations for which targeted therapies are now available including ROS1, RET, NTRK1-3, KRAS, BRAF, and MET. The correlation of imaging features and genetic mutations is being studied. Testing for the immune biomarker programmed death ligand 1 is now recommended before starting first-line therapy in patients with metastatic non-small cell lung cancer. Because 70% of lung cancers are unresectable at patient presentation, diagnosis of lung cancer is usually based on small diagnostic samples (ie, biopsy specimens) rather than surgical resection specimens. The 2021 version emphasizes differences in the histopathologic interpretation of small diagnostic samples and resection specimens. Radiologists play a key role not only in evaluation of tumor and metastatic disease but also in identification of optimal biopsy targets. ©RSNA, 2024 Test Your Knowledge questions in the supplemental material and the slide presentation from the RSNA Annual Meeting are available for this article.

Non-Small-Cell Lung Cancer Immunotherapy and Sleep Characteristics: The Crossroad for Optimal Survival

INTRODUCTION

Non-small-cell lung cancer is still diagnosed at an inoperable stage and systematic treatment is the only option. Immunotherapy is currently considered to be the tip of the arrow as the first-line treatment for patients with a programmed death-ligand 1 ≥ 50. Sleep is known to be an essential part of our everyday life.

PATIENTS AND METHODS

We investigated, upon diagnosis and after nine months, 49 non-small-cell lung cancer patients undergoing immunotherapy treatment with nivolumab and pemprolisumab. A polysomnographic examination was conducted. Moreover, the patients completed the Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS), the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), the Fatigue Severity Scale (FSS) and the Medical Research Council (MRC) dyspnea scale.

RESULTS

Tukey mean-difference plots, summary statistics, and the results of paired t-test of five questionnaire responses in accordance with the PD-L1 test across groups were examined. The results indicated that, upon diagnosis, patients had sleep disturbances which were not associated with brain metastases or their PD-L1 expression status. However, the PD-L1 status and disease control were strongly associated, since a PD-L1 ≥80 improved the disease status within the first 4 months. All data from the sleep questionnaires and polysomnography reports indicated that the majority of patients with a partial response and complete response had their initial sleep disturbances improved. There was no connection between nivolumab or pembrolisumab and sleep disturbances.

CONCLUSION

Upon diagnosis, lung cancer patients have sleep disorders such as anxiety, early morning wakening, late sleep onset, prolonged nocturnal waking periods, daytime sleepiness, and unrefreshing sleep. However, these symptoms tend to improve very quickly for patients with a PD-L1 expression ≥80, because disease status improves also very quickly within the first 4 months of treatment.