Several weeks ago, the Food and Drug Administration approved Atezolizumab (Tecentric) - a type of immunotherapy called an "immune checkpoint inhibitor" - for adjuvant treatment, following tumor resection and chemotherapy in patients with early stage (II-IIIA) non-small cell lung cancer, whose tumor cells express PD-L1≥1%.

The approval was based on results from a clinical trial in which 476 patients with elevated PL-D1 who received adjuvant chemotherapy following surgical resection of their tumors, were randomly assigned into two groups: a study group - in which patients received adjuvant Atezolizumab, and a control group - in which patients did not receive adjuvant Atezolizumab.

After a follow-up of about two and a half years, results pointed towards a significant lower risk of disease recurrence among the patients in the study group who received the immunotherapy drug, compared to the patients in the control group who did not receive the immunotherapy drug (Med. DFS NR vs. 35.3 months; HR=0.66; p=0.004).

The approval marks the first time an immunotherapy drug has been cleared as an adjuvant treatment for people with lung cancer.

Atezolizumab following adjuvant chemotherapy offers a promising treatment option for patients with resected early-stage lung cancer.