How a common immune drug worked for advanced lung cancer at one hospital in Portugal
Original title: First-line pembrolizumab for advanced and metastatic non-small cell lung cancer with a PD-L1 TPS ≥ 50% at a Portuguese centre.
How far along is this research?
- Lab cells
- Animals
- Review
- Tested in people
This was tested in people. That is the most reliable kind of research we share.
This drug is already approved and used as a standard treatment for this lung cancer.
The short version
Doctors looked back at how people with advanced lung cancer did on the drug pembrolizumab, including some whose cancer had spread to the brain.
What was studied. Doctors looked back at the records of 101 people treated at one hospital in Portugal. All had advanced lung cancer with high levels of a protein called PD-L1, and all got pembrolizumab as their first treatment.
What they found. The drug seemed to work and was fairly safe in everyday care. Side effects linked to the immune system happened in 31.7% of cases. People with a type of lung cancer called squamous did worse, and people whose cancer had spread to the brain tended to live for a shorter time.
What this means, and what it doesn't
What it could mean: This drug is already a standard first choice for this kind of lung cancer. This study suggests it works in real life too, outside of trials. If lung cancer has spread to your brain, your care team can talk with you about what this may mean for you.
What it doesn't mean: This study only looked back at past records from one hospital. It did not test the drug against any other treatment. It does not show how any one person will do. It is not a cure, and it is not a brain tumor treatment on its own.
Source: PubMed, March 5, 2026 · Read the original
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