Targeting tumor-associated neutrophils: A promising strategy in lung cancer immunotherapy

Lung cancer is among the leading causes of cancer-related deaths worldwide, with treatment strategies primarily including surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and immunotherapy. Although immunotherapies targeting T cells and natural killer (NK) cells are widely used, therapies targeting neutrophils remain underdeveloped. Neutrophils are regarded as a specialized cell population that, once matured, lack the capacity for proliferation and are rapidly depleted in circulation, limiting their role to immune defense. However, recent discoveries have revealed that neutrophils represent a highly heterogeneous immune cell population, across diverse microenvironments. They are referred to as tumor-associated neutrophils when recruited to the tumor microenvironment. Initially, tumor-associated neutrophils were believed to primarily promote tumor growth and metastasis. Contrarily, emerging evidence indicates that tumor-associated neutrophils exhibit anti-tumor functions under specific conditions, acting as inhibitors during the initial growth or metastatic phases of lung cancer. This functional heterogeneity positions neutrophils as a promising focus for novel approaches to lung cancer immunotherapy. This review aims to explore the role of tumor-associated neutrophils in lung cancer progression and to investigate responses in the context of tumor control, thereby deepening the understanding of neutrophil function in lung cancer.