Overcoming resistance to anti-PD-1 immunotherapy in lymphoepithelioma-like carcinoma: A case report and review of the literature.

Primary pulmonary lymphoepithelioma-like carcinoma (LELC) is a rare subtype of non-small-cell lung cancer with no established treatment protocols. Immunotherapy is rarely used as a second-line choice in patients with advanced LELC, and more cases of this condition should be presented. We present a patient with advanced primary pulmonary LELC overcoming the resistance to second-line anti-programmed death-1 (PD-1) immunotherapy. We also review the literature to summarize the current immunotherapy landscape of this rare disorder. The LELC patient progressed after first-line chemotherapy, was treated by immunotherapy alone and progressed again. To overcome the developed resistance to immunotherapy, chemotherapy with nedaplatin plus paclitaxel in addition to nivolumab was administered and a progression-free survival (PFS) of 5 months was achieved. It was also observed that the blood levels of neuron-specific enolase may act as an efficacy biomarker in LELC. Patients with this rare disorder resistant to anti-PD-1 immunotherapy might benefit from therapy based on PD-1 inhibition; this is a future avenue of research.

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Copyright © 2020. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Déclaration de conflit d'intérêts

Declaration of Competing Interest All authors declare no conflicts of interest in relation to this work.