Perlmutter Cancer Center

The purpose of this study is to determine if, for locally advanced non-small cell lung cancer patients whose tumors have high levels of PD-L1 (a marker associated with benefits from immunotherapy), a combination of immunotherapy and a personalized 4-week radiotherapy course is safe and effective. Standard treatment for these patients is a combination of chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Immunotherapy is a form of medication intended to stimulate a person’s immune system to fight cancer. The immunotherapy that will be used in this study is called Keytruda, or pembrolizumab. Pembrolizumab is already approved as an initial treatment for patients with metastatic non-small cell lung cancer with high PD-L1 expression, but it has not been approved in combination with radiotherapy for patients without metastatic disease. Patients in this study who are found to have low tumor levels of PD-L1 will be treated with standard chemotherapy and radiotherapy.