About 30% of NSCLC patients have operable tumors, but over half experience recurrence without additional therapy, as chemotherapy alone offers minimal survival benefits. Adding perioperative immunotherapy to pre-surgical (neoadjuvant) chemotherapy significantly improves event-free survival (EFS) in patients with resectable early-stage non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). This approach reduced the risk of disease progression, recurrence, or death by 42% and showed higher rates of pathological complete response (pCR) and major pathological response (MPR) compared to chemotherapy alone.
In this phase 3, randomized, double-blind trial, adults with resectable stage IIA to IIIB NSCLC were assigned to receive either neoadjuvant nivolumab plus chemotherapy or neoadjuvant chemotherapy plus placebo every three weeks for four cycles. This was followed by surgery and then adjuvant nivolumab or…
