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Review
. 2022 Aug 2:12:877594.
doi: 10.3389/fonc.2022.877594. eCollection 2022.

Immunotherapy in non-small cell lung cancer: Past, present, and future directions

Salman R Punekar  1 , Elaine Shum  1 , Cassandra Mia Grello  1 , Sally C Lau  1 , Vamsidhar Velcheti  1
Affiliations
Review

Immunotherapy in non-small cell lung cancer: Past, present, and future directions

Salman R Punekar et al. Front Oncol. .

Abstract

Many decades in the making, immunotherapy has demonstrated its ability to produce durable responses in several cancer types. In the last decade, immunotherapy has shown itself to be a viable therapeutic approach for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Several clinical trials have established the efficacy of immune checkpoint blockade (ICB), particularly in the form of anti-programmed death 1 (PD-1) antibodies, anti-cytotoxic T-lymphocyte-associated protein 4 (CTLA-4) antibodies and anti-programmed death 1 ligand (PD-L1) antibodies. Many trials have shown progression free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) benefit with either ICB alone or in combination with chemotherapy when compared to chemotherapy alone. The identification of biomarkers to predict response to immunotherapy continues to be evaluated. The future of immunotherapy in lung cancer continues to hold promise with the development of combination therapies, cytokine modulating therapies and cellular therapies. Lastly, we expect that innovative advances in technology, such as artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning, will begin to play a role in the future care of patients with lung cancer.

Keywords: CTLA-4; Immunotherapy; NSCLC; PD-1; PD-L1; biomarkers; immune checkpoint blockade.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Select emerging immunotherapies currently in clinical development. Created with BioRender.com.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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