ELCC 2022 | Surgical perspective on neoadjuvant IO for resectable stage III NSCLC

Alessandro Brunelli, MD, St. James’s University Hospital, Leeds, UK, discusses the surgeons perspective of neoadjuvant immunotherapy (IO) for resectable stage III non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). In addition to local treatment, including surgery and radiotherapy, patients who present at this stage require systemic treatment, such as chemotherapy or chemotherapy plus IO, which is currently being investigated in ongoing clinical trials. Dr Brunelli emphasizes the significance of assessing the patients fitness prior to surgery due to the risks associated with morbidities and mortality. Tumor heterogeneity is additionally discussed. As the primary tumor and lymph node metastasis has been noted to differ by approximately 30%, the current standard of a single tumor biopsy to analyze mutational burden is likely to be unrepresentative. This interview took place during the virtual European Lung Cancer Congress 2022.