Evolving Precision First-Line Systemic Treatment for Patients with Unresectable Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer

Abstract

First-line systemic therapy for patients with advanced or metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) has rapidly evolved over the past two decades. First, molecularly targeted therapy for a growing number of gain-of-function molecular targets has been shown to improve progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) with favorable toxicity profiles compared to platinum-containing chemotherapy and can be given as first-line systemic therapy in ~25% of patients with NSCLC. Actionable genetic alterations include EGFR, BRAF V600E, and MET exon 14 splicing site-sensitizing mutations, as well as ALK-, ROS1-, RET-, and NTRK-gene fusions. Secondly, inhibitors of programmed cell death protein 1 or its ligand 1 (PD-1/L1) such as pembrolizumab, atezolizumab, or cemiplimab monotherapy have become a standard of care for ~25% of patients with NSCLC whose tumors have high PD-L1 expression (total proportion score (TPS) ≥50%) and no sensitizing EGFR/ALK alterations. Lastly, for the remaining ~50% of patients who are fit and whose tumors have no or low PD-L1 expression (TPS of 0–49%) and no sensitizing EGFR/ALK aberrations, platinum-containing chemotherapy with the addition of a PD-1/L1 inhibitor alone or in combination of a cytotoxic T-lymphocyte-associated protein 4 (CTLA-4) inhibitor improves PFS and OS compared to chemotherapy alone. The objectives of this review are to summarize the current data and perspectives on first-line systemic treatment in patients with unresectable NSCLC and propose a practical algorithm for implementing precision biomarker testing at diagnosis.