Research Progress of Antibody-drug Conjugates in Small-cell Lung Cancer

Antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) are novel drugs consisting of monoclonal antibodies targeting tumor-specific or tumor-associated antigens coupled with different numbers of payloads via linkers. ADCs have shown promising clinical benefits in the treatment of a variety of malignancies. Small-cell lung cancer (SCLC) is a hypo-differentiated neuroendocrine tumor with an extremely high degree of malignancy. Although SCLC is sensitive to radiotherapy and chemotherapy, it has a poor prognosis due to characteristics such as early susceptibility to metastasis and recurrence. Progress in the treatment of SCLC is very limited, and more durable and effective therapies should be developed to improve prognosis. However, the progress of SCLC-related therapeutic agents has been limited by the lack of specific molecular targets. This article reviews the basic principles and mechanisms of ADCs, highlights the research progress of relevant drugs against some targets in SCLC, and summarizes new targets that may be developed as targeted drugs.