Atezolizumab in advanced non-small cell lung cancer

Atezolizumab (Tecentriq^®, MPDL3280A, Genentech, CA, USA) is a humanized IgG1 antagonist antibody to PD-L1 engineered to avoid antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity of activated T cells that may express PD-L1 (1). It blocks directly the interaction between the PD-L1 and PD-1/B7.1 receptors activation complex, hence it activates the tumor-specific immune response, and induces tumor cell killing (1).