Status quo in clinical and basic research on immunotherapy for small cell lung cancer

The malignancy of small cell lung cancer (SCLC) is very high. The outcome of SCLC patients is poor due to its rapid metastasis after the fi rst-line chemotherapy and the few available drugs used in the second-line chemotherapy. With the development of molecular biology, immunotherapy may break the bottle neck in treatment of SCLC, thus ushering in a glimmer of hope for it. The curative effect of adoptive immunotherapy and speci fi c vaccine on SCLC is still controversial. However, a number of clinical trials are undergoing. It has been shown in basic studies that Bcl-2 and livin gene are expected to become a new target for the diagnosis and treatment of SCLC.