Dr. Levy on the Future of Atezolizumab in NSCLC

Benjamin Philip Levy, MD, associate professor, oncology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine; clinical director, Medical Oncology, Johns Hopkins Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center, Sibley Memorial Hospital, discusses potential future uses for atezolizumab (Tecentriq) in non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

Atezolizumab is FDA approved and has demonstrated a trend towards overall survival benefit as an adjuvant therapy in patients with fully resected NSCLC with PD-L1 tumor cell expression of at least 50%, Levy says. This agent may also have potential in the adjuvant setting in patients with PD-L1 expression of 1% to 49%, although further research is needed, Levy explains.

Final data regarding atezolizumab plus anti-TIGIT agents in NSCLC are still immature, and these combinations have not been positive in small cell lung cancer, Levy notes. However, determining the role that atezolizumab, as well as other checkpoint inhibitors, will play in NSCLC requires increased investigation of combinations with other immunotherapy agents and other classes of drugs like antibody-drug conjugates, Levy concludes.