2023 Volume 63 Issue 1 Pages 2-7
Recently, there has been an increasing focus on perioperative therapy, as much as or more so than during the introduction of postoperative cisplatin plus vinorelbine to clinical practice. Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) are agents that play a part in this process. Perioperative therapy is a situation wherein chemotherapy is uniformly administered to three populations: patients with a true cancer-free status that has been cured by surgical resection; patients with a potential cancer-carrying status that has not been cured by surgical resection but can be cured by medical treatment; and patients who are not cured after surgical resection and perioperative medical treatment. Perioperative medical treatment using ICIs has already been reported with atezolizumab (IMpower010) and pembrolizumab (PEARLS) as postoperative therapy and nivolumab (CheckMate 816) as preoperative therapy. In addition, preoperative and postoperative clinical trials using ICIs are underway, with these agents being applied to patients with advanced-stage disease. Furthermore, patient selection for perioperative treatment is also entering a major turning point with the use of pathologic response and minimal residual disease.
