[Advances in immunotherapies for non-small cell lung cancer]

Globally, Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related death of high morbidity and mortality with poor prognosis, which needs some more effective and less toxic therapies. The immunotherapies offer a novel approach for the treatment of patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in both the adjuvant and palliative disease settings. A number of promising immunotherapies based on different mechanism have now been evaluated showing an increasing response rate. Moreover, further phase II/III clinical trials will be indicated to explore its value. These include checkpoint inhibitors (anti-CTLA4 antibody, anti-PD-1 antibody, anti-PD-L1 antibody), active vaccination (L-BLP25 liposome vaccine, Belagenpumatucel-L vaccine, MAGE-A3 protein vaccine) and adoptive vaccination (CIK cells). The purpose of this paper will draw a summary on the theory, clinical trials, toxicity and problems to be solved of the immunotherapies in NSCLC.