Durable Response to Maintenance Treatment Comprised of Viagenpumatucel-L, Nivolumab, Ramucirumab, and Docetaxel in a PD-L1-Low Advanced-Stage Non-Small-Cell Lung Cancer: A Case Report

Abstract

Checkpoint inhibitors (CIs) are now standard of care for late-stage non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC); however, only a minority of patients treated with a CI show clinical benefit compared to platinum-based chemotherapy alone, regardless of programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1) expression levels. We describe a case of durable tumor response and disease stabilization in a patient with advanced pretreated squamous NSCLC given a maintenance treatment comprised of nivolumab, docetaxel, and ramucirumab combined with the allogeneic cellular cancer vaccine viagenpumatucel-L over a period of 28 months. Our case suggests that combination strategies that serve to sensitize tumors to checkpoint inhibition, even in patients refractory to available treatment, may lead to improved efficacy.

Keywords

• non-small-cell lung cancer
• nivolumab
• cancer vaccine
• pd-l1
• checkpoint inhibition