High Rate of Surgical Success in Complex NSCLC With Neoadjuvant Chemoimmunotherapy

A small prospective study found that adding immunotherapy to neoadjuvant chemotherapy more than doubled mediastinal lymph node clearance rates in patients with stage III non-small cell lung cancer. The improved nodal response facilitated more complete surgical resections in these complex cases. These findings support the growing body of evidence that chemoimmunotherapy before surgery can downstage locally advanced NSCLC and expand the pool of patients eligible for curative-intent surgery. While promising, the small sample size means larger confirmatory trials are needed before practice-changing conclusions can be drawn.