Chemotherapy or chemo-immunotherapy as first-line treatment for extensive-stage small-cell lung cancer: a meta-analysis.

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths worldwide, of which small-cell lung cancer (SCLC) is an extremely lethal type, because most patients present with incurable, extensive-stage SCLC (ES-SCLC). The standard first-line treatment for ES-SCLC for the last 30 years has been chemotherapy. Immunotherapies have recently been introduced as cancer treatments, and have shown the potential to provide a higher and more durable treatment response with relatively tolerable toxicity. This study systematically assessed the results of previous research and provided evidence that add-on immunotherapy with standard chemotherapy as the first line treatment in ES-SCLC offered great improvement in survival, but patients should be closely monitor for additional side effects.