Transcriptional programs of tumor infiltrating T-cells provide insight into mechanisms of immune response and new targets for immunotherapy

Early 2015 marked the first major clinical success of immunotherapy in lung cancer, resulting in the FDA approval of nivolumab (an anti-PD-1 antibody) for metastatic squamous non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). A little over a year later, two additional PD-1 blocking agents were approved, atezolizumab and pembrolizumab, for use in the treatment of metastatic NSCLC. Pembrolizumab was approved as a first line therapeutic option if a patient’s tumor was found to contain at least 50% of tumor cells expressing PD-L1.