Enhanced, culturally competent communication with early-stage lung cancer patients can narrow racial gaps in curative treatment completion and increase treatment rates for all races, according to research presented by Manning et al at the 58th Annual Meeting of the American Society for Radiation...
For patients with stage II and III non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) unable to receive standard treatments of surgery or chemoradiation, hypofractionated radiation therapy results in similar overall survival and progression-free survival rates, limited severe side effects, and shorter...
Maria Werner-Wasik, MD, of Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, summarizes a session she moderated on lung toxicity, including the impact of cardiac radiation, the risk of radiation to thoracic vertebral bodies, radiation pneumonitis, and upfront SBRT. (Scientific Session 39)
A new analysis of records in the Veterans Affairs Central Cancer Registry demonstrates a clear positive impact of the increased use of stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) to treat patients with stage I non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in recent years, according to research presented...
Survival rates for elderly patients who received stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) for early stage non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) rose from roughly 40% to 60% over the past decade, concurrent with the increasing adoption of SBRT, according to research presented by Dalwadi et al...
Thomas J. Lynch, Jr, MD, of Massachusetts General Hospital, summarizes his keynote lecture on whether we are any closer to curing lung cancer with targeted treatments. (Keynote Address 2)
The combined use of fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) and immunohistochemistry (IHC) identified non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients with rare or novel anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) gene rearrangements, not otherwise identified by FISH alone, that showed response to...
On September 13, 2016, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) modified the dosage regimen for nivolumab (Opdivo) for the currently approved indications for renal cell carcinoma, metastatic melanoma, and non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The currently approved recommended dosage...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has accepted for Priority Review the supplemental Biologics License Application (sBLA) for pembrolizumab (Keytruda), an anti–PD-1 (programmed cell death protein 1) therapy, for the first-line treatment of patients with advanced non–small...
Analysis of a large non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patient cohort with stage IV M1a disease identified lymph node staging as having clinical significance and an impact on prognosis. Findings from the study were published by Dai et al in the Journal of Thoracic Oncology. Lung cancer is...
Computers can be trained to be more accurate than pathologists in assessing slides of lung cancer tissues, according to a new study by researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine. The researchers found that a machine-learning approach to identifying critical disease-related features...
Leptomeningeal metastases, a serious complication in lung cancer patients, were found to be more prevalent in patients with non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutations. In a recent study of leptomeningeal metastases published by Li et al in...
Bristol-Myers Squibb Company announced last week that CheckMate-026, a phase III trial investigating the use of nivolumab (Opdivo) as monotherapy, did not meet its primary endpoint of progression-free survival in patients with previously untreated advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC)...
A cutting-edge method of extracting big data from positron-emission tomography (PET) images can provide additional information to quantify lung tumors caused by a genetic mutation. This information could help guide the most effective treatment, suggest findings of a study of nearly 350 patients...
Nivolumab, a checkpoint inhibitor approved for patients with squamous and nonsquamous non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in 2015, is not cost-effective when compared to treatment with docetaxel, chemotherapy medication. However, a Swiss analysis showed the cost-effectiveness of nivolumab is...
The College of American Pathologists (CAP), the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC), and the Association for Molecular Pathology (AMP) announced today the open comment period for the revised evidence-based guideline, “Molecular Testing Guideline for Selection of...
Luis G. Paz-Ares, MD, PhD, of the Hospital Universitario 12 De Octubre, discusses in Spanish study findings on adding necitumumab to gemcitabine and cisplatin chemotherapy in the first-line treatment of patients with stage IV squamous non–small cell lung cancer. To see the English language...
Researchers at the 2016 Annual Meeting of the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging (SNMMI) presented a means of evaluating an immunotherapy that fights off non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) by strengthening a patient’s own immune system (Scientific Paper 134). Due to...
Although clinical trials have shown that lung cancer screening using low-dose computed tomography (CT) can detect lung cancers early and reduce lung cancer mortality, less than half of family physicians in a recent survey agreed that screening reduces lung cancer–related deaths. Most were...
The use of adjuvant chemotherapy in early-stage non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients improves overall survival and 5-year overall survival rates in patients with tumor sizes ranging from 3 to 7 cm. These findings were published by Morgensztern et al in the Journal of Thoracic...
Fabrice Denis, MD, PhD, of the Institut Inter-regional de Cancérologie Jean Bernard, discusses findings from a phase III trial on an app used between visits for early detection of symptomatic relapse and complications in high-risk lung cancer patients (Abstract LBA9006). To see the English...
Vali A. Papadimitrakopoulou, MD, of MD Anderson Cancer Center, and Heather A. Wakelee, MD, of Stanford University, discuss findings on adjuvant chemotherapy with or without bevacizumab for early-stage non–small cell lung cancer, with outcomes based on chemotherapy subsets (Abstract 8507).
Vali A. Papadimitrakopoulou, MD, of MD Anderson Cancer Center, and Gideon Michael Blumenthal, MD, of the US Food and Drug Administration, discuss milestone analyses with immune checkpoint inhibitors, targeted therapy, and standard therapy in metastatic non–small cell lung cancer trials submitted to ...
Vali A. Papadimitrakopoulou, MD, of MD Anderson Cancer Center, and Fabrice Denis, MD, PhD, of the Institut Inter-regional de Cancérologie Jean Bernard, discuss findings from a phase III trial on an app used between visits for early detection of symptomatic relapse and complications in high-risk...
Charles M. Rudin, MD, PhD, of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, reports on the encouraging anti-tumor activity of this antibody drug conjugate against one of the most deadly malignancies: recurrent or refractory small cell lung cancer (Abstract LBA8505).
A Web-mediated follow-up application (app; Moovcare™) improved advanced lung cancer survival, according to a French multicenter randomized phase III study. Researchers analyzed the association and evolution of self-reported clinical symptoms over time. The median overall survival of patients...
Early findings from a first-in-human clinical trial showed that the antibody-drug conjugate rovalpituzumab tesirine (Rova-T) shows promising efficacy against recurrent small cell lung cancer (SCLC). The treatment, which combines a novel anti-DLL3 antibody with a powerful anticancer agent, halted...
Luis G. Paz-Ares, MD, PhD, of the Hospital Universitario 12 De Octubre, discusses study findings on adding necitumumab to gemcitabine and cisplatin chemotherapy in the first-line treatment of patients with stage IV squamous non-small cell lung cancer. To see Dr. Paz-Ares discuss this video in...
A study presented by Antonia et al at the 2016 ASCO Annual Meeting (Abstract 100) showed that utilizing the immunotherapeutic agents nivolumab (Opdivo) and ipilimumab (Yervoy) could lead to more effective treatment options for patients with small cell lung cancer (SCLC) who have progressed after...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today approved the cobas EGFR Mutation Test v2, a blood-based companion diagnostic for the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) inhibitor erlotinib (Tarceva). This is the first FDA-approved, blood-based genetic test that can detect EGFR gene mutations...
Immunohistochemistry (IHC) is an effective tool that can be used for identifying proto-oncogene 1 receptor tyrosine kinase (ROS1) gene rearrangements and screening patients for the administration of the targeted therapy crizotinib (Xalkori), a small-molecule tyrosine kinase inhibitor. Chromosomal...
Current guidelines from the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) and American College of Chest Physicians (ACCP) recommend that operable patients with clinical stage IIIA non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) should receive induction chemotherapy (with or without concurrent radiotherapy) ...
Black residents of highly segregated neighborhoods were less likely to receive surgery for early-stage non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) than their peers in less-segregated neighborhoods, according to a study published by Johnson et al in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention....
Researchers have found that treating patients who have early-stage non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) is associated with a small but increased risk of death from causes other than cancer, according to findings presented at the European Society...
Three commercially available diagnostic tests were similarly effective in measuring programmed death ligand 1 (PD-L1) protein expression on non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) tumor samples, indicating that health-care providers may someday be able to use these tests interchangeably when...
The investigational drug LOXO-101, which selectively targets a family of proteins called neurotrophic tyrosine kinase receptors (NTRKs), produced significant tumor regression in patients whose tumors had NTRK gene fusions, according to data from a phase I clinical trial presented by Hong et al at...
The new investigational anticancer therapeutic BGB-283, which targets the RAF family of proteins, was safe, tolerable, and showed signs of clinical activity in patients who had a range of types of cancer with mutations in BRAF, KRAS, and NRAS, according to results from a phase I clinical trial...
The benefit of plasma genotyping to predict treatment benefit in patients with non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) was confirmed in three studies presented April 15 at the European Lung Cancer Conference (ELCC) 2016 in Geneva. However, researchers warned that plasma tests are unlikely to fully ...
Patients with epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR)-expressing advanced squamous non–small cell lung cancer benefit most from necitumumab (Portrazza) added to gemcitabine and cisplatin chemotherapy, according to a subgroup analysis from the SQUIRE trial presented by Paz-Ares et al (Abstract ...
The third-generation epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) tyrosine kinase inhibitor osimertinib (Tagrisso) is effective in the first-line treatment of EGFR-mutated non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), according to a late-breaking abstract presented by Ramalingam et al (Abstract...
Immunotherapy with a live bacterium combined with chemotherapy demonstrated more than 90% disease control and a 59% response rate in patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma, according to the results of a phase Ib trial presented by Jahan et al April 14 (Abstract 208O_PR) at the European Lung...
Douglas E. Wood, MD, of the University of Washington, discusses best practices, which enable a complete workup in 1 to 2 weeks in almost all patients, saving unnecessary testing.
Douglas E. Wood, MD, of the University of Washington, discusses important new developments in early detection, the need to educate primary care physicians and patients, and the potential to save up to 15,000 lives each year.
Rogerio Lilenbaum, MD, of Yale Cancer Center/Smilow Cancer Hospital, discusses the importance of tumor profiling for non–small cell lung cancer and strategies for treating EGFR-positive disease in the first-line setting.
Among patients with breast cancer, lung cancer, or chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), those who had a specific form of the CYP3A7 gene (CYP3A7*1C) had worse outcomes compared with those who did not have CYP3A7*1C. This may be related to how the patients metabolize the therapeutics used to treat...
Consuming a diet with a high glycemic index was independently associated with an increased risk of developing lung cancer in non-Hispanic whites, according to a new epidemiologic study from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. This research, published by Melkonian et al in Cancer...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today approved the tyrosine kinase inhibitor crizotinib (Xalkori) for the treatment of patients with metastatic non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) whose tumors are ROS1-positive. Crizotinib was first approved in 2011 for the treatment of patients...
A new study suggests that one approach to watching for a cancer's return is being inappropriately used at many hospitals and isn't helping patients survive longer. The findings are published by Healy et al in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. The study looked at how often survivors ...
Metabolic phenotyping of blood plasma by proton nuclear magnetic resonance (H-NMR) identified unique metabolic biomarkers specific to lung cancer patients and allowed for the accurate identification of a cohort of patients with early and late-stage lung cancer. These findings were published by...
The number of men smoking tobacco in India rose by more than one third to 108 million between 1998 and 2015, according to a new study published in the journal BMJ Global Health. The study also found that cigarettes were replacing the traditional bidi, a small, inexpensive Indian cigarette,...