Neoadjuvant BRAF and MEK inhibitor therapy elicits pathological complete response in stage IIIA non-small cell lung cancer harboring BRAF V600E mutation: A case report

In recent years, significant improvement has been made in the management of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), primarily driven by advances in targeted therapy and immunotherapy. Research on neoadjuvant targeted therapy has also experienced considerable development, primarily directed towards NSCLC harboring epidermal growth factor receptor or anaplastic lymphoma kinase mutations. Nevertheless, there remains a dearth of studies investigating neoadjuvant targeted therapy in the context of BRAF (V-Raf murine sarcoma viral oncogene homolog B) V600E mutant NSCLC. Herein, we describe the clinical trajectory of a stage IIIA NSCLC patient who underwent a two-month course of neoadjuvant targeted therapy comprising BRAF and MEK (mitogen-activated extracellular signal-regulated kinase) inhibitors prior to surgical intervention, and subsequent postoperative evaluation unveiled a pathological complete response. The case reported here indicates the efficacy and safety of combining BRAF and MEK inhibitors as neoadjuvant targeted therapy in BRAF V600E-mutant NSCLC and suggests the potential viability of such a therapeutic modality in improving treatment outcomes in this subset of NSCLC.