Will immunotherapy for bone metastases from squamous lung cancer be effective?

For some patients with bone metastasis of squamous lung cancer, immunotherapy will be effective, taking the most common pembrolizumab as an example. A study enrolled 559 patients with primary metastatic squamous lung cancer, who were randomized 1:1 to receive pembrolizumab in combination with chemotherapy (Group A), versus chemotherapy alone (Group B). The results showed that pembrolizumab combination chemotherapy significantly prolonged the median PFS (progression-free survival time), which was 6.4 months in group A and 4.8 months in group B, and there was no significant increase in adverse effects. In addition subgroup analysis suggested that different PD-L1 expression subgroups benefited from combination chemotherapy treatment. Based on the results, the NMPA has approved pembrolizumab in combination with carboplatin and paclitaxel (or albumin-bound paclitaxel) for first-line treatment of metastatic squamous lung cancer in 2019.