Lung cancer continues to be a leading cause of cancer-related death worldwide. Despite tremendous advances in surgical technique, chemotherapy regimens, radiation, and targeted therapies, survival is <50% at 5 years. Immunotherapy, specifically immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs), demonstrates promise as a solution to this clinical problem. Several agents have been Food and Drug Administration-approved for locally advanced and metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Further studies are now exploring the use of these agents in the neoadjuvant and adjuvant settings. Although ICIs have demonstrated meaningful efficacy in NSCLC and other advanced malignancies, they are not without adverse toxicities. Furthermore, there are minimal data on their use in the perioperative period. Here we discuss the current domain of ICIs and their surgical implications in NSCLC.
Copyright © 2019 The American Association for Thoracic Surgery. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.