ctDNA-MRD Guided Consolidation Toripalimab in Stage IB-IIIA NSCLC

Most patients with stage IB-IIIA non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) are managed with surgery, follow by standard-of-care adjuvant platinum-based chemotherapy. However, postoperative recurrence rates remain high. Recent years, the role of checkpoint inhibitors has been proven to be effective in patients with advanced NSCLC, and even in patients with resectable NSCLC. Emerging data supports the use of consolidation checkpoint inhibitors therapy in localized NSCLC. Based on the results from Neotorch trial, consolidation toripalimab therapy led to a significant improvement in event-free survival for patients with resectable NSCLC. However, not all patients may benefit from consolidation therapy. Circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) has emerged as a promising biomarker for early detection of minimal residual disease (MRD) in cancer surveillance. There is a critical need to identify MRD after curative therapies to determine which patients may benefit from consolidation toripalimab therapy. The aim of this study is to explore whether observation follow-up for patients with negative ctDNA after adjuvant therapy has a non-inferior prognosis for patients with positive ctDNA and received consolidation toripalimab therapy. This study aims to incorporate ctDNA-MRD to personalize the administration of consolidation toripalimab therapy for completely resected stage IB-IIIA NSCLC (without EGFR or ALK alterations for nonsquamous NSCLC).