Long-Term Outcomes of Preoperative Nivolumab With or Without Relatlimab in Patients With Resectable Non-Small-Cell Lung Cancer (NEOpredict-Lung)

In this study, the authors report the long-term outcomes of the randomized phase II NEOpredict-Lung trial, which evaluates short-course neoadjuvant nivolumab with or without the LAG-3 inhibitor relatlimab in resectable non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Sixty patients with stage IB to IIIA disease received two preoperative cycles of immunotherapy followed by surgery. With a median follow-up of 37 months, the three-year overall survival approached 89 percent in both arms, with durable disease-free survival and low recurrence rates. A major pathological response was associated with improved outcomes. The combination arm showed higher nodal downstaging rates, suggesting a potential added biological effect of LAG-3 blockade. These results support chemotherapy-free neoadjuvant immunotherapy as a feasible and promising strategy, especially in patients who are sensitive to immune checkpoint inhibitors.