Neo/adjuvant immunotherapy in the treatment of nonsmall cell lung cancer

Despite improvements in staging, surgical techniques, and the introduction of adjuvant chemotherapy for stage II and III nonsmall cell lung cancer (NSCLC), a large number of operated patients have recurrences of the disease. Due to the breakthrough results of immunotherapy in advanced stages of NSCLC, studies examining its potential benefits in operated patients were logically started. The first studies looked at the use of adjuvant immunotherapy after chemotherapy, where they had already shown the benefits of atezolizumab in a phase III study. A press release on positive data for pembrolizumab in the same indication has also been published recently. This was followed by studies with neoadjuvant immunotherapy, which in the phase III trials mostly switched to the chemoimmunotherapy regimen (with possible continuation of immunotherapy in adjuvant administration). Recently, there was a press release on the positive results of nivolumab with neoadjuvant chemotherapy. It is therefore highly likely that these treatment modalities will translate into standard treatment regimens in the near future.