Research progress of neoadjuvant immunotherapy for non-small cell lung cancer and the challenge of evaluating therapeutic response with imaging methods
Although surgical resection is the mainstay of treatment for patients with early stage and locally advanced stage of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC)
distant and local recurrence occur relatively frequently
justifying the need for systemic therapy. However
neoadjuvant or adjuvant chemotherapy leads to only a 5% improvement in overall survival (OS)
highlighting a critical need for therapeutic innovation for patients with resectable NSCLC. Immune checkpoint inhibitors have opened a new patternin the field of lung cancer treatment. Clinical trials of neoadjuvant immunotherapy for resectable NSCLC have sprung up. This review summarized early findings from reported and ongoing clinical trials that applied immunotherapy to neoadjuvant treatment for resectable NSCLC patients
and discussed the decision-making confusion of neoadjuvant immunotherapy in clinical application
especially the challenges faced by therapeutic efficacy evaluation and prediction.