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CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 · Indian J Med Paediatr Oncol 2019; 40(04): 461-462
DOI: 10.4103/ijmpo.ijmpo_210_19
Editorial Commentary

First-Line Immunotherapy in Advanced Non-Small-Cell Lung Cancer

Vanita Noronha
Department of Medical Oncology, Tata Memorial Hospital, Mumbai, Maharashtra
,
Prashant Mehta
Department of Medical Oncology/Hematology/BMT, Asian Institute of Medical Sciences, Faridabad, Haryana
,
Prabhat Singh Malik
Department of Medical Oncology, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India
,
Amol Patel
Malignant Diseases Treatment Centre, Army Hospital Research and Referral, New Delhi, India
› Author Affiliations Financial support and sponsorship Nil.
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Although immune checkpoint blockers (ICBs) were discovered in the 1990s, the initial reports of their efficacy in non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) came through in 2012, when nivolumab (BMS-936558) showed responses in a Phase 1 study. From then on, there has been a constant flow of data pertaining ICBs in a multitude of previously treated malignancies.

ICBs have completely transformed care for untreated advanced NSCLC and now have entered the first-line therapeutic armamentarium based on convincing data. An encouraging update of Keynote-001 presented at the 2019 American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting showed that 23.2% overall and 29.6% of patients with a programmed death ligand (PD-L1) staining of >50% treated with pembrolizumab (P) upfront were alive at 5 years. We will be looking at some of the landmark trials of immunotherapy in treatment-naive NSCLC in relation to common clinical situations.



Publication History

Received: 15 October 2019

Accepted: 03 January 2020

Article published online:
03 June 2021

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