Quantification of PD-L1 expression in non-small cell lung cancer

Constituting a large proportion of patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), disease that is recurrent and/or metastatic is a major oncologic concern. The poor prognosis of such cases has led to enormous recent efforts in developing targeted therapies that can provide better efficacy than standard chemotherapy, whose high specificity could also result in improved tolerance. One particular realm of targeted agents that has experienced rapid emergence is immunotherapy, whereby biologic molecules are administered in efforts to sensitize the immune system to a neoplasm. Immunologic tumoral destruction occurs in a much more specific and controlled manner than the nonspecific delivery of cytotoxic compounds, and could also interact with other local therapies to achieve additional oncological effects (1,2).