Immunotherapy for Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer
Immunotherapy is the process by which a patient’s immune system is made efficient to recognize and attack the cancer cells. That being said, it must also be mentioned that the immune system is perfectly capable of keeping itself from targeting the normal cells. How? The checkpoint proteins on the immune cells are like switches that are required to be turned on and off so that the immune system refrains from attacking them. The cancer cells apply the same trick to avoid getting attacked as well. Immunotherapy drugs, also known as checkpoint inhibitors, target these checkpoints to treat patients with non-small cell lung cancer.
PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors •
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The PD-1 protein on specific immune cells is targeted by drugs such as Nivolumab and Pembrolizumab. Their role is to block the PD-1 protein in order to boost the immune response against cancer cells to shrink the tumor and slow down their growth. The PD-L1 protein is found on the surface of both tumor cells and immune cells. Atezolizumab is an immunotherapy drug that helps to block the PD-L1 protein action, which will help prevent cancer from growing or spreading.
Note that both Pembrolizumab and Atezolizumab are effective with or without chemotherapy and can also be prescribed as the first treatment in patients who have been diagnosed with advanced non-small-cell lung cancer. The same goes for Nivolumab as well, but it is prescribed along with the CTLA-4 inhibitor Ipilimumab. Not only that, but doctors also prescribe Nivolumab in combination with chemotherapy in some cases. All the above-mentioned drugs effectively treat certain types of metastatic NSCLC where cancer has relapsed after chemotherapy or drug therapies. For example, patients who