Fig. 3

Anti-tumor effect of cetuximab plus avelumab in NSCLC patient-derived ex vivo 3D spheroid cultures. A. 3D spheroid cultures were derived from the 3 NSCLC patient tumor samples and treated in vitro with avelumab, cetuximab or their combination for 7 days. Treatments induced additive effect in terms of anti-tumor growth inhibition (15–30% when used as single agents, 40–50% when used in combination), as evaluated by MTS assay. This effect was partially reverted adding an anti-CD16 mAb, that neutralizes NK cells. (chi-square: 37,503, p < 0.05). B. Exemplificative images from the experiment presented in A