Exploring New Strategies to Overcome Immunotherapy Resistance in Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer

Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is a disease that has been negatively impacting the lives of tens of thousands of families each year. Yet, despite consistent research efforts, a cure for this cancer still hasn’t been developed. Though there are many treatment options for NSCLC, the majority of these are not completely effective and tend to have numerous side effects that come with them. Over the past few decades, immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs), a common form of immunotherapy, have risen as a promising discovery in cancer treatment research. Unlike other treatment types, ICIs work to activate the immune system’s natural response to antigens by blocking checkpoint proteins which have the ability to inhibit immune cell function. Particularly for NSCLC, ICI treatment has shown many encouraging outcomes, due to its ability to work well against the complexity of the disease. However, there’s only one downside: many NSCLC patients tend to develop either primary or acquired resistance to treatment, due to numerous factors involving genetic mutations that are unique to the tumors in each individual. This paper primarily focuses on identifying the most common NSCLC treatment resistance mechanisms, and exploring the most effective methods involving ICIs in order to overcome this resistance.