Immunotherapy for non-small cell lung cancer

Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI) bind to programmed cell death-1 (PD-1)/PD-1 ligand-1 (PD-L1) and Cytotoxic T-lymphocyte antigen-4 (CTLA-4), which suppress T-cell function and inhibit their inhibitory function, resulting in T-cell activation. ICI have been approved for a wide range of cancers, including malignant melanoma, renal cell carcinoma, non-small cell lung cancer, head and neck cancer, Hodgkin's disease, small-cell lung cancer, malignant pleural mesothelioma, gastric cancer, esophageal cancer, breast cancer, uterine cancer, and hepatocellular carcinoma, and the number of indications continues to grow. In addition to the treatment of advanced disease, the anti-tumor effect has been demonstrated across disease stages, from locally advanced disease to early-stage operative disease. The treatment of lung cancer is at the forefront of this trend and long-term durable responses and survival benefits in lung cancer have been exhibited that were unimaginable when cytotoxic anticancer agents were the only treatment options. However, treatment efficacy varies greatly from case to case, and no biomarkers have been developed to accurately predict efficacy. In this article, we discuss the past and future of ICI therapy for lung cancer, based on clinical and basic evidence accumulated to-date.