Open AccessClinical challenges in neoadjuvant immunotherapy for non-small cell lung cancer
Author(s) -
Hanfei Guo,
Wenqian Li,
Qian Liu,
Jiuwei Cui
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
chinese journal of cancer research/chinese journal of cancer research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1993-0631
pISSN - 1000-9604
DOI - 10.21147/j.issn.1000-9604.2021.02.08
Subject(s) - immunotherapy , medicine , lung cancer , oncology , clinical trial , intensive care medicine , neoadjuvant therapy , adverse effect , cancer , breast cancer
Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs), a type of immunotherapy, have become one of the most important therapeutic options for first- and second-line treatment of advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Recent clinical studies have shown that immunotherapy can offer substantial survival benefits to patients with early-stage or resectable advanced NSCLC. However, considering the importance of timing when using ICIs and their associated adverse events (AEs), the advantages and disadvantages of using these agents need to be weighed carefully when deciding the use of a combined treatment. In addition, the inconsistency between imaging assessment and pathological results poses further challenges to the evaluation of efficacy of neoadjuvant immunotherapy. It is also important to develop new methodologies and discover suitable biomarkers that can be used to evaluate survival outcomes of immunotherapy and identify patients who would benefit the most from this treatment. In this review, we aimed to summarize previous results of ongoing clinical trials on neoadjuvant immunotherapy for lung cancer and discuss the challenges and future perspectives of this therapeutic approach in the treatment of resectable NSCLC.