Abstract
The extensive stage of small cell lung cancer has long been one of the diseases with poor prognosis and stagnation in the development of new treatment options. Recently, this has been trying to change by immunotherapy.
At first, immunotherapy showed several promising results in higher lines of treatment, which, however, have not yet been confirmed by phase III trials. Finally, immunotherapy found a place in the first line of treatment.
In the first line of treatment, two molecules given together with traditional platinum and etoposide proved their effectiveness. In the atezolizumab study, a hazard ratio (HR) for overall survival (OS) of 0.70 was achieved.
In the durvalumab study, the HR for OS was 0.75. Although these treatment combinations are still far from successful treatment of the most patients with advanced small cell lung cancer, on the other hand, they represent a breakthrough after many years of waiting for new treatment options.