Comments on the trial of cisplatin and etoposide plus thoracic radiotherapy followed by nivolumab or placebo for locally advanced non-small cell lung cancer (RTOG 3505)

Radiotherapy (RT) induce lethal DNA damage to tumor cells and the concurrent chemoradiation (CCRT) is the standard treatment option for inoperable stage III non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) until now (1). The expectancy of 5-year survival, however, is less than 20–25%. Thus, some modification or addition of new treatment modality would be a reasonable approach to improve its cure rate.