Treatment Selection After Immunotherapy in Squamous NSCLC

In this segment, the panel discusses how emerging therapies may be incorporated into treatment for patients with advanced squamous non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who have experienced challenges with prior immune checkpoint inhibitors. Dr. Christian Rolfo emphasizes the importance of considering toxicities carried forward from earlier lines of therapy, as immune-related adverse events may influence eligibility and treatment selection in subsequent lines. The discussion highlights the continued role of genomic testing to identify actionable alterations that could provide additional treatment options, as well as biomarker-directed approaches involving emerging antibody-drug conjugates. The panel also considers investigational therapies targeting different mechanisms, including IL-2-based approaches and next-generation CTLA-4-directed therapy. Dr. Rolfo stresses that patient selection will be important as these treatments become better characterized, particularly when considering prior toxicities and the limited size or maturity of available datasets. The experts conclude that future treatment strategies will need to balance extending survival and response durability with preservation of quality of life.