AACR 2022 | Future directions for neoadjuvant immunotherapy in lung cancer

David Paul Carbone, MD, PhD, Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center, Columbus, OH, shares his thoughts on future trends for lung cancer in the coming year. The upcoming accrual of approvals in a range of neoadjuvant therapies for combination with surgery in lung cancer should translate into real benefits for patients. The CheckMate-816 trial (NCT02998528), which investigated nivolumab plus ipilimumab or chemotherapy with chemotherapy alone in a neoadjuvant setting for patients with early non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) demonstrated a significant improvement in pathologic complete response, event free survival and overall survival in a relatively short period of time for this kind of therapy. However, there is currently a lack of trials directly comparing neoadjuvant therapies or considering immunotherapy as a stand-alone treatment. This interview was recorded at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting 2022, New Orleans, LA.