Background: Radical concurrent chemoradiotherapy is the preferred treatment for patients with stage IIIB non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), but the prognosis is poor. The emergence of immune checkpoint inhibitors has changed the treatment strategy for advanced NSCLC, providing new opportunities for therapy. However, neoadjuvant immunotherapy of locally advanced NSCLC is still in the exploratory stage.
Case presentation: A 47-year-old male with stage IIIB squamous cell lung cancer with invasion of the pulmonary artery, left superior pulmonary vein (LSPV), and left atrium (LA) at diagnosis. The patient’s lesions were significantly reduced after four cycles of combined treatment with tislelizumab and carboplatin plus nab-paclitaxel, he then underwent successful left pneumonectomy with mediastinal lymph node dissection, and postoperative pathology showed a pathologic complete response (pCR).
Conclusions: The findings demonstrated that chemotherapy in combination with immunotherapy can provide an opportunity for radical surgery in some patients with locally advanced NSCLC.