Background: Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) ranks first among global cancer-related deaths. Despite the emergence of various immunological and targeted therapies, immune tolerance remains a barrier to treatment. Methods: It has been found that this obstacle can be overcome by targeting autophagy-related genes (ATGs). ATGs were screened by coexpression analysis and the genes related to the prognosis of lung cancer were screened using Kaplan–Meier (K-M) survival analysis, univariate Cox regression, and multivariate Cox regression. The prognostic risk model of ATGs was constructed and verified using K-M survival analysis and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis. Results: The prognostic risk model of ATGs was constructed. Gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) showed that the function and pathway of ATG enrichment were closely related to immune cell function. CIBERSORT, LM22 matrix, and Pearson correlation analysis showed that risk signals were significantly correlated with immune cell infiltration and immune checkpoint genes. Conclusions: We identified and independently verified the ATG (AL691432.2, MMP2-AS1, AC124067.2, CRNDE, ABALON, AL161431.1, NKILA) in NSCLC patients and found that immune regulation in the tumor microenvironment is closely related to this gene.

Background: Nivolumab is a monoclonal antibody that can inhibit programmed death 1 (PD-1) and Ipilimumab is a monoclonal antibody against CTLA-4(cytotoxic T lymphocyte-associated antigen 4), both of which can prevent the immune escape of tumor cells. Our goal was to synthesize evidence from published randomized controlled trials involving the safety and efficacy of either Nivolumab alone or in combination for the treatment of unresectable lung cancer. Methods: We searched the following electronic databases: PubMed, Embase, and Cochrane libraries, and screened the retrieved records for eligibility. We used the Stata16 software for the analyses. The results of the analysis are expressed as hazard ratios (HRs) or risk ratios (RRs) and their corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CI). Results: The final analysis included nine trials involving 4754 patients. Among patients with advanced lung cancer, patients using immunosuppressive therapy had better overall survival (OS), progression-free survival (PFS), and an objective response rate (ORR) than patients receiving chemotherapy. The HR of Nivolumab monotherapy or combination therapy with OS was compared with that of chemotherapy (HR: 0.73, 95% CI: 0.64–0.83; HR: 0.75, 95% CI: 0.60–0.93), and the HR of PFS was (HR: 0.81, 95% CI: 0.69–0.94; HR: 0.86, 95% CI: 0.76–0.98).Conclusions: Immunotherapy has been shown to have more clinically meaningful survival benefits for patients with lung cancer, whether monotherapy or combination immunotherapy.