Current Status of Immune Checkpoint Inhibitor Immunotherapy for Lung Cancer

Abstract

Immunotherapy is a major breakthrough in the treatment of cancer in recent years. Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) including programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1)/programmed death-1 (PD-1) and cytotoxic T-lymphocyte antigen-4 (CTLA-4) have been used for different histologic types of cancer including primary lung cancer that represents the most common and fatal cancer globally. Among ICI immunotherapy agents, atezolizumab, durvalumab, ipilimumab, nivolumab, and pembrolizumab are currently used as standard-of-care (SOC) treatment for metastatic or earlier stages of lung cancer. Major issues of ICI immunotherapy in lung cancer comprise the use of immune biomarkers prior to ICI therapy, selection of ICI agents, combination of ICIs/chemotherapy, combination of ICIs/radiotherapy, sequence of tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) targeted therapy and ICI immunotherapy, sequence of chemotherapy and ICI immunotherapy, treatment duration of ICI regimen and ICI therapy for different histopathology, stage, PD-L1, and performance status. Based on the contemporary major clinical trials and authoritative guidelines, the objective of this review is to present an overview of the current status of ICI immunotherapy in lung cancer.