Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2022 Jan 19;11(3):320.
doi: 10.3390/cells11030320.

Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors in Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer: Progress, Challenges, and Prospects

Affiliations
Review

Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors in Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer: Progress, Challenges, and Prospects

Shengjie Tang et al. Cells. .

Abstract

Non-small cell lung cancer is one of the most common types of malignances worldwide and the main cause of cancer-related deaths. Current treatment for NSCLC is based on surgical resection, chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and targeted therapy, with poor therapeutic effectiveness. In recent years, immune checkpoint inhibitors have applied in NSCLC treatment. A large number of experimental studies have shown that immune checkpoint inhibitors are safer and more effective than traditional therapeutic modalities and have allowed for the development of better guidance in the clinical treatment of advanced NSCLC patients. In this review, we describe clinical trials using ICI immunotherapies for NSCLC treatment, the available data on clinical efficacy, and the emerging evidence regarding biomarkers.

Keywords: CTLA-4; PD-1/PD-L1; biomarkers; immune checkpoint inhibitors; immunotherapy; non-small cell lung cancer.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Pathological classification of lung cancer and its corresponding prevalence.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Tumor immune mechanism. T cells express PD-1 and CTLA-4 on their surface. Interaction with its ligands, PD-L1 and CD80/CD86, respectively, results in negative regulation of T cells. Therefore, anti-PD-1/PD-L1 and anti-CTLA-4 pathway antibodies would induce an upregulation of T cell activity.

References

    1. Bray F., Ferlay J., Soerjomataram I., Siegel R.L., Torre L.A., Jemal A. Global cancer statistics 2018: GLOBOCAN estimates of incidence and mortality worldwide for 36 cancers in 185 countries. CA Cancer J. Clin. 2018;68:394–424. doi: 10.3322/caac.21492. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Beasley M.B., Brambilla E., Travis W.D. The 2004 World Health Organization classification of lung tumors. Semin. Roentgenol. 2005;40:90–97. doi: 10.1053/j.ro.2005.01.001. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Sands J., Tammemägi M.C., Couraud S., Baldwin D.R., Borondy-Kitts A., Yankelevitz D., Lewis J., Grannis F., Kauczor H.-U., von Stackelberg O., et al. Lung Screening Benefits and Challenges: A Review of The Data and Outline for Implementation. J. Thorac. Oncol. 2021;16:37–53. doi: 10.1016/j.jtho.2020.10.127. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Passaro A., Mok T., Peters S., Popat S., Ahn M.-J., de Marinis F. Recent Advances on the Role of EGFR Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitors in the Management of NSCLC With Uncommon, Non-Exon 20 Insertions, EGFR Mutations. J. Thorac. Oncol. 2021;16:764–773. doi: 10.1016/j.jtho.2020.12.002. - DOI - PubMed
    1. A Thai A., Solomon B.J., Sequist L.V., Gainor J.F., Heist R.S. Lung cancer. Lancet. 2021;398:535–554. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(21)00312-3. - DOI - PubMed

MeSH terms