A new hope: the immunotherapy in small cell lung cancer

Abstract

Small cell lung cancer (SCLC) is of a high-grade malignancy with a high metastatic potential and poor clinical prognosis. Unfortunately, SCLC initially exhibits a good response to chemotherapy and radiation therapy, but inevitably, relapses decrease patients' chance of survival. Despite tremendous advances on the development of new chemotherapeutic agents, the prognosis of this disease remains poor. Immunotherapy plays a role in eliciting an anticancer response by modulating the patient's immune response of the tumor. Several studies have demonstrated that abnormal autoimmune regulation has a close relationship with SCLC. Thus, several immunotherapy trials are focused on SCLC treatment, including such approaches as immune checkpoints blockers, tumor vaccine, antigenic targets and adoptive cellular immunotherapy to benefit patients with SCLC. To date, the results from immunotherapy in SCLC have not been promising. For example, tumor vaccines have not been demonstrated to have a significant survival benefit. However, there have been many promising advances with immune checkpoints blockers. This review will provide a general overview of immunotherapy in SCLC. The landmark clinical trials in previous successful immunotherapy studies are summarized here. Finally, the challenges of immunotherapy in SCLC are discussed to facilitate the prediction of possible and valuable strategies for future therapy.

Combination of TMB and CNA Stratifies Prognostic and Predictive Responses to Immunotherapy Across Metastatic Cancer

“…Another cancer type marked by a high level of TMB was SCLC; however, it also ranked high in CNA level, with enrichment of TMB high CNA high in patients who had a poor prognosis and were relatively immune resistant (33,34). These findings may partly explain why patients with SCLC with high TMB showed an unfavorable response to ICIs (35). We speculated that higher level of CNA in SCLC might be a dominant factor leading to patients' unfavorable prognosis and decreasing responses to immunotherapy.…”

Sex Differences and Adverse Effects between Chemotherapy and Immunotherapy for Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer

“…Regarding small cell lung cancer (SCLC) curently platinum analogues and etoposide still remains the tip of the arrow as first line treatment [11]. In the past year immunotherapy for sclc as first line treatment has been also introduced [12]. All treatments have their advantages and disadvantages.…”

Small Cell Carcinoma of the Hypopharynx

“…It would be beneficial to consider advancements in treatment modalities for small cell carcinomas of the lung, such as immunotherapy and apply them to extrapulmonary small cell carcinomas. Small cell lung cancer is closely related to abnormal regulation of autoimmunity, and promising advances have been made with immune checkpoint blockers [ 16 ].…”