[Role of immunotherapy in locally advanced non-small cell lung cancer]. / Place de l'immunothérapie dans le cancer bronchique non à petites cellules localement avancé.

Concomitant radiochemotherapy has been the standard of care for unresectable stage III non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), irrespective of histological sub-type or molecular characteristics. Currently, only 15-30 % of patients are alive five years after radiochemotherapy, and this figure remains largely unchanged despite multiple phase III randomised trials. In recent years, immune-checkpoint blockades with anti-PD-(L)1 have revolutionised the care of metastatic NSCLC, becoming the standard front- and second-line strategy. Several preclinical studies reported an increased tumour antigen release, improved antigen presentation, and T-cell infiltration in irradiated tumours. Immunotherapy has therefore recently been evaluated for patients with locally advanced stage III NSCLC. Following the PACIFIC trial, the anti-PD-L1 durvalumab antibody has emerged as a new standard consolidative treatment for patients with unresectable stage III NSCLC whose disease has not progressed following concomitant platinum-based chemoradiotherapy. Immunoradiotherapy therefore appears to be a promising association in patients with localised NSCLC. Many trials are currently evaluating the value of concomitant immunotherapy and chemoradiotherapy and/or consolidative chemotherapy with immunotherapy in patients with locally advanced unresectable NSCLC.

[Current knowledge on perioperative treatments of non-small cell lung carcinomas]. / Traitements péri-opératoires des carcinomes bronchiques non à petites cellules.

Surgery is still the main treatment in early-stage of non-small cell lung cancer with 5-year survival of stage IA patients exceeding 80%, but 5-year survival of stage II patients rapidly decreasing with tumor size, N status, and visceral pleura invasion. The major metastatic risk in such patients has supported clinical research assessing systemic or loco-regional perioperative treatments. Modern phase 3 trials clearly validated adjuvant or neo-adjuvant platinum-based chemotherapy in resected stage I-III patients as a standard treatment of which value has been reassessed several independent meta-analyses, showing a 5% benefit in 5y-survival, and a decrease of the relative risk for death around from 12 to 25%. Conversely perioperative treatments were not validated for stage IA and IB patients. In more advanced stage patients, neo-adjuvant radio-chemotherapy has not been validated either. Adjuvant radiotherapy for N2 patients is currently tested in the large international phase 3 trial Lung-ART/IFCT-0503. The development of video-assisted thoracic surgery (VATS) has helped adjuvant chemotherapies for elderly patients. Perioperative targeted treatments in NSCLC with EGFR or ALK molecular alterations is currently assessed in the U.S. ALCHEMIST prospective trial. Finally, the role of immune check-points inhibitors is currently evaluated in a large international phase 3 trial testing adjuvant anti-PD-L1 monoclonal antibody, the BR31/IFCT-1401 trial, while a proof-of principle neo-adjuvant trial IONESCO/IFCT-1601, has just begun by the end of the 2016 year, with survival results of both trials expected in 5 to 7 years.

Nivolumab-induced organizing pneumonitis in a patient with lung sarcomatoid carcinoma.

Immune checkpoint inhibitors are known to induce 'immune pneumonitis' in 3-6% of patients treated for lung cancer. However, their dramatic efficacy in as much as 20% of patients led to recent registrations in squamous, and then non-squamous lung carcinoma, in second line setting after failure of first-line chemotherapy, while large phase 3 trials are on-going, to assess first-line immunotherapy, either alone or in combination with chemotherapy. Pulmonary Sarcomatoid carcinomas consist of a rare subset of highly aggressive and poorly differentiated non-small-cell lung carcinomas (NSCLC), with poor prognosis and chemo-resistance. Although exhibiting high expression of programmed death ligand-1 (PD-L1), their sensitivity to inhibitors of PD-1/PD-L1 axis is still unknown. Here we report a case of lung sarcomatoid carcinoma with Nivolumab dramatic and long-lasting efficacy, but occurrence of a very specific pattern of lung toxicity, the so-called 'organizing bronchiolitis syndrome'. As more and more NSCLC patients are promised to receive PD-1 inhibitors as part of their treatment, we feel that specific features of such Nivolumab-induced organizing pneumonitis should be known. Although corticosteroid sensitivity is high, recurrence is frequent because of premature steroid tapering, as for all other causes of organizing pneumonias, and probably because of the Nivolumab long tissue half-life.