Immunotherapy for EGFR-mutant non-small cell lung cancer after EGFR-TKI acquired resistance / 国际肿瘤学杂志

ABSTRACT

Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) -mutant advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) was previously regarded as a cold tumor according to tumor immune microenvironment (TIME) . However, recent studies have found that EGFR-tyrosine kinase inhibitors (EGFR-TKIs) treatment can transform the host immunity from immunosuppressive to immunosupportive state, bringing new hope for immunotherapy. There are four main therapeutic strategies for patients after EGFR-TKIs acquired resistance immunotherapy alone (Im) , immunotherapy plus chemotherapy (Im+C) , immunotherapy plus antiangiogenic drugs (Im+A) , and immunotherapy combined with antiangiogenic drugs and chemotherapy (Im+A+C) . Among them, the efficacy of Im is extremely limited, being significantly lower than that of chemotherapy alone, while there is still scarce evidence for the efficacy of Im+A with few clinical studies. The combination of Im+C and Im+A+C shows better efficacy than chemotherapy alone. Im+A+C has a superior clinical outcome to Im+C. Additionally, the EGFR L858R mutation subgroup benefits more from Im+C than the EGFR 19 del mutation subgroup. The T790M-negative subgroup has a greater benefit from Im+A+C than the T790M-positive subgroup. In general, the strategy of combining immunotherapy with chemotherapy and/or an antiangiogenic drug represents a novel and promising method for treating EGFR-mutant NSCLC after EGFR-TKI failure.