Immunotherapy in lung cancer

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in United States (1). Survival rates for metastatic lung cancer including non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and small cell lung cancer (SCLC) are poor with 5-year survival of less than 5% (1). The use of molecular targeted therapies, such as erlotinib and crizotinib, has improved median overall survival (OS) in a limited group of NSCLC patients whose tumors harbor specific genetic alterations [epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) sensitizing mutations: 15-18% frequency in unselected NSCLC; anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) tranlocations: 2-8% frequency in unselected NSCLC] (2,3). However for a large group of NSCLC and SCLC molecular alterations are not available to lead to direct targeted therapies