Howard Jack West, MD, on New Kinase Targets for Treating Advanced NSCLC
2015 IASLC World Conference on Lung Cancer
Howard Jack West, MD, of the Swedish Cancer Institute, summarizes three important papers: anlotinib as third-line treatment for refractory advanced non–small cell lung cancer; the EGFR exon 20 mutation as a prognostic/predictive biomarker; and EGFR exon 18 mutations as molecular predictors of sensitivity to afatinib or neratinib (Abstracts ORAL 3.01, 3.02, and 3.03).
Ugo Pastorino, MD
Ugo Pastorino, MD, of the Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori Foundation, discusses his study, which showed that stopping smoking before or during low-dose computed tomography screening reduced overall mortality by more than 25%, a benefit that is three- to fivefold greater than this type of screening (Abstract PLEN04.07).
Guneet Walia, PhD
Guneet Walia, PhD, of the Lung Cancer Foundation, summarizes some key presentations: bridging the quality chasm, patients’ attitudes and physicians’ perceptions on maintenance therapy, and patient advocacy.
Karen Kelly, MD
Karen Kelly, MD, of the University of California, Davis, summarizes three important papers on NSCLC: expression as a predictive biomarker; pembrolizumab, immune-mediated adverse events, and corticosteroid use; and an evaluation of disease-related symptoms in patients treated with nivolumab or docetaxel (Abstracts ORAL 31.01, 31.02, and 31.03).
Christine D. Berg, MD
Christine D. Berg, MD, of Johns Hopkins Medicine, discusses how increased insurance coverage should dramatically increase lung cancer screening. If done correctly—which will be a challenge—screening will help improve the prognosis of patients with lung cancer (Abstract PLEN 01.01).
Eric Lim, MD
Eric Lim, MD, of the Royal Brompton and Harefield NHS Trust, discusses his findings on the nonspecific symptoms of never-smokers, which suggests that imaging could play a more important role in diagnosing these patients at an earlier stage.