Christine Lovly, MD, PhD

Formal discussant of the studies on TAK-788 and BLU-667, Christine Lovly, MD, PhD, of the Vanderbilt Ingram Cancer Center, in Nashville, called both studies “very exciting.”

“In 2019, we have a plethora of information on genomic drivers in lung cancer. There are a lot of great initiatives to drive [genomic] testing to 100% across the United States. The message is that testing is crucial,” Dr. Lovly emphasized. “As a community, we can expand the reach of precision medicine for patients with lung cancer through improved uptake of tumor biomarker testing. Every patient should be tested.”

Dr. Lovly continued: “ASCO 2019 has brought us hope for lung cancers with these elusive, complex targets.” She noted that it is not easy to design drugs for these targets. “Multikinase inhibitors barely target RET, with modest activity and response rates of about 30%. We have been trying to practice precision medicine with imprecise drugs,” she stated.

Next Steps

Future steps for BLU-667 include figuring out where in the sequence of treatment this agent will fit. Regarding TAK-788, Dr. Lovly said that responses were encouraging. “We actively and enthusiastically look forward to further data on TAK-788. This is a good new potential option for patients with EGFR exon 20—the third most common EGFR variant,” she said. ■

DISCLOSURE: Dr. Lovly has financial ties with Ariad, AstraZeneca, Blueprint Medicines, Cepheid, Foundation Medicine, Genoptix, Novartis, Pfizer, Sequenom, Takeda, and Xcovery.