STATUS OF IMMUNE THERAPY IN NON-SMALL CELL LUNG CANCER (NSCLC)

In this review on current therapy in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), the current status of immune therapy is presented. This therapeutic area is dominated by the biological therapeutics, or "biologics". Firstly, the immune checkpoint inhibitors include antibodies to PD-1, e. g., nivolumab (BMS-936558) and pembrolizumab (MK-3475), and antibodies to PD-L1, i.e., BMS-936559, MPDL-3280A and MEDI-4736. Secondly, the vaccines include the EGF vaccine (CIMAvax-EGF (R)), astuprotimut-R (Zumagev, MAGE-A3), belagenpumatucel-L (Lucanix (R)), tecemotide (L-BLP-25, Stimuvax (R)), tergenpumatucel-L, TG-4010, tertomotide (GV-1001), INGN-225, MVA-5T4 (TroVax (R)) and CV-9202. Thirdly, there are now some developments in adoptive cell transfer in NSCLC, with ongoing clinical trials involving carcinoembryonic antigen and NY-ESO-1 as targets for "designer" T cells. Finally, new areas of immune therapy are discussed, including chimeric antigen receptors and peptides as immune vaccines. A number of new clinical trials are ongoing in immune therapy in NSCLC and these are summarized.