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Review
. 2021 Jun 11;13(12):2924.
doi: 10.3390/cancers13122924.

Classification of Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer's Tumor Immune Micro-Environment and Strategies to Augment Its Response to Immune Checkpoint Blockade

Alexander Chi  1   2 , Xia He  2 , Lin Hou  3 , Nam P Nguyen  4 , Guangying Zhu  5 , Robert B Cameron  6 , Jay M Lee  6
Affiliations
Review

Classification of Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer's Tumor Immune Micro-Environment and Strategies to Augment Its Response to Immune Checkpoint Blockade

Alexander Chi et al. Cancers (Basel). .

Abstract

Immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) with checkpoint inhibitors has led to significant and durable response in a subset of patients with advanced stage EGFR and ALK wild-type non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). This has been consistently shown to be correlated with the unique characteristics of each patient's tumor immune micro-environment (TIME), including the composition and distribution of the tumor immune cell infiltrate; the expression of various checkpoints by tumor and immune cells, such as PD-L1; and the presence of various cytokines and chemokines. In this review, the classification of various types of TIME that are present in NSCLC and their correlation with response to ICB in NSCLC are discussed. This is conducted with a focus on the characteristics and identifiable biomarkers of different TIME subtypes that may also be used to predict NSCLC's clinical response to ICB. Finally, treatment strategies to augment response to ICB in NSCLC with unresponsive types of TIME are explored.

Keywords: LUAD; LUSC; NSCLC; immune checkpoint blockade; tumor immune microenvironment.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Characteristics of different types of TIME related to NSCLC’s response to ICI.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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