A new addition to the PD-1 checkpoint inhibitors for non-small cell lung cancer—the anti-PDL1 antibody—MEDI4736

It has been over two years since the phase I studies of the programmed death-1 (PD-1) checkpoint inhibitors— antibodies against PD-1 and its ligand PD-L1—were first presented and published internationally, demonstrating prolonged tumor regressions and improvements in survival (1,2). These results created a paradigm shift in the field of immunotherapy, in that responses were not only observed in melanoma and renal cell cancer, but also in cancers not historically thought to be immunogenic, including lung and ovarian cancer. The past few years have witnessed the rapid development of these agents into phase III registration trials. As shown in Table 1, over seven pharmaceutical companies are now racing to develop and obtain indication of a variety of PD-1 checkpoint inhibitors in a variety of solid tumors.