With the increasing clinical potential of
tumor immunotherapy, more and more clinical trials are undergoing with
immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs). Immune checkpoints (ICs) have been identified as crucial regulators of the immune response and have improved ICIs-inhibitor therapeutic strategies. The most important ICs in
lung cancer include programmed cell death-1 (PD-1), programmed cell death ligand-1 (PD-L1), lymphocyte activation gene-3 (LAG-3), major histocompatibility complex class II (MHC II), T cell
immunoglobulin and
mucin-domain containing-3 (TIM-3), and Galectin-9 (GAL-9), OX-40, OX40L. However, the expression and prognostic value of these ICs are still controversial. Among them, high expression of PD-L1 on
tumor cells (>50%) predicts a better
therapeutic effect of anti-PD-1
monoclonal antibody compared to patients with low PD-L1 expression. However, only 20-30% of
non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients seem to get benefit from
immunotherapy. In order to improve the
immunotherapy outcomes, more and more attention is paid to combination
immunotherapy. Analyzing the co-expression of ICs can give us a more comprehensive basis for combination
immunotherapy. This review article summarized our comprehensive expression of ICs based on our previous research, and analyzed their correlation with prognosis in NSCLC patients. We also provided suggestions for potentially personalized combination
immunotherapy in NSCLC.