Advances in immunotherapy for stage III non-small cell lung cancer: moving immune checkpoint inhibitors to the front lines concurrently with chemoradiotherapy?

摘要

Lung cancer is a leading cause of cancer-associated death worldwide. Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) accounts for more than 80% of all lung cancer cases. Among all cases of NSCLC, approximately two-thirds are advanced and inoperable at the time of diagnosis. Although concurrent chemoradiotherapy (cCRT), the standard treatment for patients with inoperable, locally advanced NSCLC (1), is potentially curative, the 5-year overall survival (OS) rate has reached a plateau around 20%, despite considerable attempts to improve treatment results by intensification of conformal radiation therapy and enhanced chemotherapy with induction or consolidation.