Nasser Hanna, MD
Gregory Masters, MD, FACP, FASCO
An update of the ASCO clinical practice guideline on the systemic treatment of patients with stage IV non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) clarifies the role of immunotherapy in this setting. The update was published by Hanna et al in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.1
“This guideline update provides oncologists with the tools to choose therapies that are most likely to benefit their patients,” said Nasser Hanna, MD, Co-Chair of the expert panel that developed the guideline update.
ASCO published the previous guideline on systemic therapy for stage IV NSCLC in 2015.2 For this update, an expert panel with multidisciplinary representation reviewed medical literature published between February 2014 and December 2016.
“Knowing when to use targeted therapies or immunotherapy in place of more toxic chemotherapy can help improve the quality of life of our patients,” said Gregory Masters, MD, FACP, FASCO, Co-Chair of the guideline panel.
Key Recommendations
Key New recommendations from the guideline update include:
First-Line Therapy: For patients with EGFR mutation–negative, ALK rearrangement–negative, and ROS1 rearrangement–negative tumors:
For patients with EGFR mutation–positive, ALK rearrangement–positive, or ROS1 rearrangement–positive tumors, first-line recommendations for targeted therapy from the 2015 guideline remain the same.
Second-Line Therapy
DISCLOSURE: For full disclosures of the guideline update panel, visit ascopubs.org.
REFERENCES
1. Hanna N, et al: J Clin Oncol. August 14, 2017 (early release online).
2. Masters GA, et al: J Clin Oncol 33:3488-3515, 2015