Current status and development of anti-PD-1/PD-L1 immunotherapy for lung cancer

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths worldwide, mainly because it is usually in the advanced stage at the time of diagnosis. Although great progress has been made in the diagnosis and treatment of lung cancer in the past 25 years, the prognosis of lung cancer patients remains unsatisfactory. Agents targeting immune checkpoints have shown potential to improve therapeutic outcomes in patients with lung cancer. Inhibitors of PD-1/PD-L1 have been approved for the treatment of different types of lung cancer by FDA. Nevertheless, with the increasing number of clinical trails, the adverse events have emerged. Therefore, attention has been paid to finding out the factors influencing the therapeutic effect of anti-PD-1/PD-L1 therapy and reducing the occurrence of adverse events. Combination therapy may be an effective strategy to reduce the adverse events and improve the therapeutic effect. In this review, we summarized the current status and progress of anti-PD1/PD-L1 agents in lung cancer treatment.