Efficacy and safety of neoadjuvant tislelizumab combined with chemotherapy in locally advanced non-small cell lung cancer—a retrospective cohort study

Background: At present, comprehensive treatment is still the main approach for locally advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients, and the research of neoadjuvant tislelizumab combined with chemotherapy in patients with locally advanced NSCLC is still in progress. We conducted this research in order to investigate the efficacy and safety of neoadjuvant tislelizumab combined with chemotherapy in the treatment of locally advanced NSCLC. Methods: From January 1, 2021, to November 30, 2022, 12 patients with locally advanced NSCLC at the Fujian Medical University Union Hospital were retrospectively analyzed. All patients received three cycles of neoadjuvant immunotherapy combined with chemotherapy before surgery. The primary endpoint was pathological complete response (pCR), and the secondary endpoints were the objective response rate (ORR), R0 resection rate, and safety. Results: According to the preoperative imaging evaluation, two patients (2/12, 16.67%) had complete remission, seven patients (7/12, 58.33%) had partial remission, and three patients (3/12, 25.00%) had stable disease. The overall objective remission rate was 75.0%. Postoperative pathology confirmed that seven patients (7/12, 58.33%) achieved pathological complete remission, and the R0 resection rate was 100%. During the treatment, five patients (5/12, 41.67%) had treatment-related adverse reactions, all of which were grade I–II according to the Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events (CTCAE) classification, and no adverse reactions of grade III or above were found. Conclusions: Neoadjuvant tislelizumab combined with chemotherapy shows good efficacy and safety in patients with locally advanced NSCLC and has no significant adverse effects on perioperative outcomes. However, this is a small sample size study, and further large-scale prospective studies are needed in the future to validate our research results.