Atezolizumab for the treatment of advanced non‑small cell lung cancer

05/2018

MUDr. Bohdan Kadlec, Ph.D.

Klinika nemocí plicních a tuberkulózy, Fakultní nemocnice Brno

SUMMARY

Atezolizumab (Tecentriq®) is a new drug from a number of immunotherapeutics and the first programmed death-ligand (PD-L1) antibody approved for metastatic non-small cell lung cancer patients who have progressed during frontline chemotherapy. Atezolizumab is an antibody to PD-L1 engineered to avoid antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity of activated T cells that may express PD-L1 and activates the tumor-specific immune response while preserve immune homeostasis in normal tissue by sparing the interaction of PD-L2 with PD-1. The approval was based on two open-label phase II/IM multicenter trials, that demonstrates good safety profile and benefit for atezolizumab in overall survival, progression-free survival, and response rate when compared to docetaxel regardless of PD-L1 expression. A prospective role in the first line in combination with chemotherapy and bevacizumab appears to be a promising one.

KEY WORDS

atezolizumab, immunotherapy, advanced non-small cell lung cancer