Abstract

Survival rates of metastatic lung cancer including non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and poor lung cell cancer (SCLC) are poor with a survival rate of less than 5%. The use of cell-oriented therapies has improved the overall survival of the median (OS) in a limited group of NSCLC patients whose tumors undergo certain genetic mutations. However in a large group of NSCLC and SCLC cell mutations are not available to lead to targeted treatment. Recent positive results from new medical research and checkpoint inhibitors have proven against the common belief that lung cancer is not immune. In particular, checkpoint inhibitors targeting the cytotoxic T-lymphocyteassociated antigen 4 (CTLA-4) and the proposed death-1 pathway (PD-1) have shown long-term clinical responses with controlled toxicity.

Several phase II and III clinical trials examining the combination of different chemotherapy schedules with immuno-therapy or immuno-therapy alone continue with lung cancer and significant results are expected in the near future. However, further research is needed to understand the appropriate combination of immuno-therapeutic agents with chemotherapy and radiation therapy for NSCLC and SCLC.

Keywords:  Lung cancer; Immuno-therapy; Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC); Small cell lung cancer (SCLC); Checkpoint inhibitors