Immunotherapy and non-small cell lung cancer

Abstract Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer mortality, and non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) accounts for more than 85% of all lung cancers. Immunotherapy has brought a paradigm shift to the treatment of NSCLC. Immune checkpoint inhibitors have emerged as one of the main new therapeutic options for patients with advanced NSCLC. This brief review focuses on analyzing the biological rationale and early clinical data available concerning immunotherapeutic strategies, and more specifically, programmed cell death-1 (PD-1) inhibitors and programmed cell death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) inhibitors.