Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • NEWS AND VIEWS

New windows open for immunotherapy in lung cancer

Activating immune cells to destroy tumours is an effective strategy for treating an advanced lung cancer — but only for some people. Evidence that this approach has potential in early disease and as a combination therapy has now emerged.
  1. Lizza Hendriks

    1. Lizza E. Hendriks is in the Department of Cancer Medicine, Institut d’Oncologie Thoracique, Gustave Roussy, 94805 Villejuif, France, and in the Department of Pulmonary Diseases, Maastricht University Medical Center, the Netherlands.

    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed  Google Scholar

  2. Benjamin Besse

    1. Benjamin Besse is in the Department of Cancer Medicine, Institut d’Oncologie Thoracique, Gustave Roussy, 94805 Villejuif, France, and at the Université Paris Sud, Université Paris-Saclay.

    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed  Google Scholar

Chemotherapy became the standard treatment for lung cancer in the twentieth century1. But in the past 15 years, there has been a drive to improve outcomes for people with this still-deadly disease, either through therapies that target enzymes encoded by genes harbouring cancer-driving mutations, or through immunotherapies, which activate the body’s immune system to target tumours. Writing in The New England Journal of Medicine, two groups2,3 provide evidence that supports the use of immunotherapies to treat non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) at different stages of the disease.

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Nature 558, 376-377 (2018)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-018-05312-9

References

  1. NSCLC Meta-Analyses Collaborative Group. J. Clin. Oncol. 26, 4617–4625 (2008).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  2. Forde, P. M. et al. N. Engl. J. Med. https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMoa1716078 (2018).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. Hellmann, M. D. et al. N. Engl. J. Med. https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMoa1801946 (2018).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Hoos, A. Nature Rev. Drug Discov. 15, 235–247 (2016).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. Bianco, A., Malapelle, U., Rocco, D., Perrotta, F. & Mazzarella, G. Curr. Opin. Pharmacol. 40, 46–50 (2018).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  6. Reck, M. et al. N. Engl. J. Med. 375, 1823–1833 (2016).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  7. Brahmer, J. et al. N. Engl. J. Med. 373, 123–135 (2015).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  8. Hellmann, M. D. et al. Cancer Cell https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ccell.2018.03.018 (2018).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Gandhi, L. et al. N. Engl. J. Med. https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMoa1801005 (2018).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Reck, M. et al. Ann. Oncol. 28 (Suppl. 11), xi31 (2017).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Ferrara, R. et al. J. Thorac. Oncol. 12 (Suppl. 2), S1843–S1844 (2017).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. NICE. Nivolumab in combination with ipilimumab for treating advanced melanoma. Available at https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ta400 (2016).

Download references

Subjects

Latest on:

Nature Careers

Jobs

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing

Search

Advanced search

Quick links