Progress in immunotherapy for extensive-stage small cell lung cancer
- VernacularTitle:广泛期小细胞肺癌的免疫治疗进展
- Author:
Xinyue WANG
1
;
Kai KANG
2
Author Information
1. Dept. of Oncology Ward 2，Hospital of Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine，Chengdu 610075，China
2. Division of Thoracic Tumor Multimodality Treatment，Cancer Center and State Key Laboratory of Biotherapy，West China Hospital，Sichuan University，Chengdu 610041，China
- Publication Type:Journal Article
- Keywords:
extensive-stage small cell lung cancer;
immunotherapy;
immune checkpoint inhibitor;
maintenance therapy
- From:
China Pharmacy
2026;37(15):2051-2056
- CountryChina
- Language:Chinese
-
Abstract:
Small cell lung cancer is a highly aggressive subtype of lung cancer， and most patients are diagnosed with extensive- stage small cell lung cancer （ES-SCLC）. Conventional therapeutic regimens only achieve limited duration of remission； most patients experience recurrence or disease progression shortly after treatment， leading to poor long-term survival rates. Nevertheless， immunotherapy has revolutionized the treatment landscape of ES-SCLC. This paper reviews research advances in first-line immunotherapy combined with chemotherapy， maintenance therapy， and post-progression therapy for ES-SCLC. Programmed death receptor 1/programmed death-ligand 1 （PD-1/PD-L1） inhibitors combined with platinum plus etoposide serve as the cornerstone of first-line treatment for ES-SCLC. Regimens combining PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors with anti-angiogenic agents， or dual immune checkpoint inhibitors plus platinum-etoposide chemotherapy， exhibit promising prospects， yet their additional survival benefits remain unconfirmed. In maintenance therapy， lurbinectedin combined with atezolizumab has yielded positive results in phase Ⅲ clinical trials， whereas maintenance regimens such as tarlatamab combined with PD-L1 inhibitors require further validation. For patients with disease progression after first-line immunochemotherapy， tarlatamab， a T-cell engager targeting delta-like ligand 3/ cluster of differentiation 3， has demonstrated survival benefits， and antibody-drug conjugates targeting B7 homolog 3 and trophoblast cell-surface antigen 2 also exert moderate anti-tumor activity. In the future， further investigations are required to identify the optimal combination regimens， treatment sequences and beneficiary populations for immunotherapy in ES-SCLC.
