By Rashmi Acharya, MS, Coordinator, Science & Research, GO2 for Lung Cancer

Chemotherapy has been the standard treatment option for Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC) without actionable biomarkers. Recently, immunotherapy treatments have been added into the treatment mix. Several studies presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology’s Annual Meeting offer further good news about the effectiveness of current FDA-approved immunotherapy treatments for advanced cancer.

  • For patients with advanced lung cancer and PD-L1 levels of less <50%, a Food and Drug Administration analysis of clinical trials found that chemotherapy/immunotherapy combination therapy remains the best first treatment option. When compared to immunotherapy alone, the combination had longer survival rates and a longer period before disease progression.
  • A 2-year update from the CHECKMATE 9LA Trial found that patients treated with the combination of nivolumab (Opdivo), ipilimumab (Yervoy), and chemotherapy continued to have increased survival compared to chemotherapy alone.

Multiple clinical trials also explored the use of immunotherapy in early-stage cancer. Among the findings:

  • Nivolumab given with chemotherapy before surgery (neo-adjuvant) in stages IB to IIIA lung cancers improved the benefits of surgery and did not impact whether patients received surgery.
  • Treatment with the immunotherapy drug Tecentriq (atezolizumab) after surgery and chemotherapy (adjuvant) lengthened the amount of time before cancer recurs – particularly for Stage II and III lung cancers with a PD-L1 biomarker.

These studies provide vital data on the use of immunotherapy treatments in different stages of lung cancer. Future studies will further test these treatments to expand on these early results.