Jing Yan, Yaping Guo, Wan Zhao, Xiaojuan Zhang, Yi Yang, Xinyu Tang
Stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) may enhance synergistic effects of immunotherapies and radiotherapy (iRT), with the potential to induce abscopal effect in irradiated and non-irradiated sites. The case of a metastatic non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) male patient with acquired immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) resistance (third-line setting) is reported. He received coeliac lymph node SBRT plus ICI re-challenge. This regimen induced abscopal effect on the patient's metastatic liver lesions. Despite negative PD-L1 expression and low tumour mutation burden (TMB) in liver biopsies, the patient achieved a progression-free survival (PFS) exceeding 12 months post-rechallenge, with 29 months of overall survival (OS) from initial ICI treatment (the follow-up ended in October 2021 due to the patient's death). Reports on draining lymph node (DLN) SBRT combined with ICI re challenge in immunotherapy-resistant metastatic NSCLC remain scarce, especially when targetting coeliac lymph nodes. This case suggests that DLN SBRT plus ICIs could be a reasonable option for such immunotherapy-resistant patients.