Nivolumab as first-line treatment in non-small cell lung cancer patients—key factors: tumor mutation burden and PD-L1 ≥50%

Although we have new diagnostic equipment, lung cancer is still diagnosed at a late stage (1,2). In the past 5 years, novel targeted therapies with tyrosine kinase inhibitors based on the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK), proto-oncogene B-Raf and v-Raf murine sarcoma viral oncogene homolog B (BRAF) and proto-oncogene tyrosine-protein kinase ROS-1 (ROS-1) are used for treatment in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients (3).