Salvage Surgery for Lesions Resistant to Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors in a Case Suggestive of Pulmonary Pleomorphic Carcinoma.

Yoshio Nakano, Hiroka Serizawa, Yuri Enomoto, Yusuke Kuze, Norio Okamoto, Iwao Gohma, Yumiko Yasuhara

Abstract readCase Reports

In one paragraph

Article in Internal medicine (Tokyo, Japan), 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

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0citing papers in PubMed

–field-weighted citation impact

1 · What the graph read from it

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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

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0 citing papers in PubMed.

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5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

7 authors.

Yoshio NakanoDepartment of Respiratory Medicine, Sakai City Medical Center, Japan.

Hiroka SerizawaDepartment of Respiratory Medicine, Sakai City Medical Center, Japan.

Yuri EnomotoDepartment of Respiratory Medicine, Sakai City Medical Center, Japan.

Yusuke KuzeDepartment of Respiratory Medicine, Sakai City Medical Center, Japan.

Norio OkamotoDepartment of Respiratory Medicine, Sakai City Medical Center, Japan.

Iwao GohmaDepartment of Respiratory Medicine, Sakai City Medical Center, Japan.

Yumiko YasuharaDepartment of Pathology, Sakai City Medical Center, Japan.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Pulmonary pleomorphic carcinoma, a rare chemoresistant sarcomatoid lung cancer, responds to immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs). ICIs are effective when programmed death-ligand 1 expression is high. We treated a 61-year-old man with pembrolizumab whose spindle cell carcinoma regressed. However, salvage resection of a slowly enlarging residual nodule revealed adenocarcinoma, prompting a reconsideration of the entire clinical course. The lesion was ultimately considered suggestive of pulmonary pleomorphic carcinoma, underscoring the pronounced intratumoral heterogeneity with variable ICI sensitivity. When durable disease control is achieved with ICIs in pulmonary pleomorphic carcinoma, this heterogeneity should prompt consideration of local therapies, particularly surgical excision, for recurrent foci.

Indexed as

Immune Checkpoint InhibitorsLung NeoplasmsSalvage TherapyAdenocarcinoma of LungAntibodies, Monoclonal, HumanizedDrug Resistance, NeoplasmHumansMaleMiddle AgedAntibodies, Monoclonal, HumanizedImmune Checkpoint Inhibitorspembrolizumabimmune checkpoint inhibitorsintratumoral heterogeneitylung cancerPD-L1Pleomorphic carcinomasalvage surgery

Identifiers

PMID41033994

DOI10.2169/internalmedicine.5980-25

PMCPMC13222699

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LicenceCC BY-NC-ND

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.