Immune checkpoint inhibition (ICI) marked the start of a new era in the treatment of advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), inducing a durable response in a substantial proportion of patients. The success of ICI in the advanced setting spurred interest to also examine the potential of this treatment modality in patients with early-stage NSCLC. The first success story in this respect came from the phase III PACIFIC trial, establishing consolidation therapy with durvalumab after chemoradiation as the new standard of care for patients with inoperable, locally advanced NSCLC. More recently, ICI also yielded promising results in patients with resectable NSCLC. In fact, the IMpower010 trial showed that adjuvant atezolizumab after 4-cycles of platinumbased chemotherapy significantly improves the disease-free survival (DFS) compared to best supportive care in patients with stage II-IIIA NSCLC. In addition to this, other studies suggest that neoadjuvant treatment with ICI might result in substantial major pathologic response and pathologic complete response rates, and high rates of R0 resection without a significant delay in the time to surgery.
