Pembrolizumab for Advanced Nonsmall Cell Lung Cancer: Efficacy and Safety in Everyday Clinical Practice

Immune checkpoint inhibition has profoundly improved survival in a subset of patients with advanced nonsmall cell lung cancer (aNSCLC) [1 –4]. As many as 68% of NSCLC tumors express programmed death ligand 1 (PD-L1); binding of PD-L1 to programmed death protein 1 (PD-1) on activated T cells prevents an antitumor immune response [4]. Pembrolizumab, a humanized IgG4 monoclonal antibody to PD-1, inhibits its interaction with PD-L1 [1]. As a first line treatment for aNSLC patients with a PD-L1 tumor proportion score (TPS) ≥ 50% not harbouring genomic tumor alterations (i.e., Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor (EGFR) mutation or Anaplastic Lymphoma Kinase (ALK) rearrangement), overall survival (OS) is significantly higher with pemb rolizumab compared to platinum doublet chemotherapy [2,3] In patients who have progressed on platinum-based chemotherapy, pembrolizumab improves OS compared to docetaxel if the PD-L1 TPS > 1% [4].
Source: Lung Cancer - Category: Cancer & Oncology Authors: Source Type: research