FDA Approves Atezolizumab in Combination With Chemotherapy for First-Line Treatment of Metastatic Nonsquamous NSCLC
On December 4, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved atezolizumab (Tecentriq) in combination with chemotherapy (nab-paclitaxel and carboplatin) for the first-line treatment of adults with metastatic nonsquamous non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with no EGFR or ALK genomic tumor...
Does Adding Pembrolizumab or Placebo to Chemotherapy for Patients With Metastatic Squamous NSCLC Improve Quality of Life?
In a health-related quality of life analysis from the phase III KEYNOTE-407 trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Mazières et al found that the patients with metastatic squamous non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who received pembrolizumab in addition to chemotherapy had better...
Despite Challenges, Pioneer in CT Screening for Early Lung Cancer Works to Move the Field Forward
In 1999, a team of researchers from Weill Cornell Medical College advocated the use of a then-novel practice: low-dose radiation CT screening for lung cancer. It captures a full thoracic image in a single breath hold, and can recognize a tumor in its earliest stages when the chance for cure is...
Long-Term Survival With PD-1/PD-L1 Inhibitors in NSCLC
Although many commentaries on studies featured in The ASCO Post call for scrutiny of the fine points, this is not the case for the recent report by Antonia et al in The Lancet Oncology (reviewed in the current issue of The ASCO Post).1 This article serves as a well-deserved victory lap for the...
Analysis of 4-Year Survival With Nivolumab in Patients Previously Treated for Advanced NSCLC
In an analysis reported in The Lancet Oncology, Scott J. Antonia, MD, PhD, of Duke Cancer Institute, and colleagues identified long-term survival rates with nivolumab therapy in patients with previously treated advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), including comparative outcomes vs...
Final Overall Survival Results of IMpower131 Trial in Advanced Squamous NSCLC
In patients with stage IV squamous non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), those with high programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1) expression treated with atezolizumab and chemotherapy experienced longer overall survival rates than those treated with chemotherapy alone. For those participants without...
First-Line Nivolumab Plus Ipilimumab in Special Populations With Non–Small Cell Lung Cancer
First-line therapy consisting of nivolumab plus ipilimumab showed a consistent safety profile in special populations with advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), according to research presented at the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC) 2019 World Conference on Lung ...
Novel Therapies for Small Cell Lung Cancer and Neuroendocrine Tumors
Here is a glimpse at updated clinical trial data on newer therapies under study for the small cell lung cancer (SCLC) and advanced extrapancreatic neuroendocrine tumors. IMpower133 and ALTER: Novel Therapies for SCLC The treatment of small cell lung cancer has seen little progress in recent years,...
Nivolumab/Ipilimumab: Another First-Line Option for Advanced NSCLC
The combination of nivolumab and ipilimumab improved overall survival compared with chemotherapy as first-line therapy for patients with advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1) expression of at least 1%, according to the results of CheckMate 227....
2019 State of Lung Cancer Report Released
More Americans than ever are surviving lung cancer. While the disease remains the leading cause of cancer deaths among both women and men, over the past decade, the survival rate has increased. A new report from the American Lung Association—the 2019 State of Lung Cancer—examines this promising...
What Is the Best Palliation for End-Stage Lung Cancer?
Patients with advanced lung cancer can experience burdensome symptoms at the end of life. Pulmonologists can alleviate some of this suffering, but it’s a balancing act between doing too much and not enough, according to specialists who spoke at CHEST 2019, the annual meeting of the American College ...
Gefitinib Alone vs Gefitinib Plus Chemotherapy in EGFR-Mutated Metastatic NSCLC
In the Japanese phase III NEJ009 trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Hosomi et al found that the addition of first-line gefitinib to carboplatin/pemetrexed improved progression-free survival vs gefitinib alone in patients with EGFR-mutated metastatic non–small cell lung cancer...
Novel Therapies for Small Cell Lung Cancer and Neuroendocrine Tumors
Here is a glimpse at updated clinical trial data on newer therapies under study for the small cell lung cancer (SCLC) and advanced extrapancreatic neuroendocrine tumors. IMpower133 and ALTER: Novel Therapies for SCLC The treatment of small cell lung cancer has seen little progress in recent years, ...
Rates of Non–Guideline-Concordant Lung Cancer Treatment in the United States
Only about 6 in 10 patients with lung cancer in the United States receive the minimal lung cancer treatments recommended by National Comprehensive Cancer Network® (NCCN) Guidelines, according to new research published by Blom et al in the Annals of the American Thoracic Society. Erik F. Blom, MD,...
CheckMate 227: Nivolumab Plus Ipilimumab Presents Another Option in First-Line Treatment of Advanced Non–Small Cell Lung Cancer
The combination of nivolumab and ipilimumab improved overall survival compared with chemotherapy as first-line therapy for patients with advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1) expression of at least 1%, according to the results of CheckMate 227....
Osimertinib Improves Overall Survival vs Gefitinib, Erlotinib in Advanced EGFR-Mutated Non–Small Cell Lung Cancer: FLAURA Phase III Trial
The third-generation tyrosine kinase inhibitor osimertinib extended overall survival compared with the older tyrosine kinase inhibitors gefitinib and erlotinib in patients with EGFR-mutated advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), according to late-breaking final overall survival results of the ...
Early Lung Cancer Detection Followed by Minimally Invasive Surgery Saves Lives
Lung cancer remains the number one cancer killer, leading to about 150,000 deaths per year in the United States and accounting for approximately 25% of all cancer deaths in the nation. Early detection has improved survival in other malignancies such as breast, colon, and cervical cancers, but...
Dietary Fiber, Yogurt Consumption, and Lung Cancer Risk
In a pooled analysis reported in JAMA Oncology, Yang et al found that higher fiber and higher yogurt consumption were associated with significantly reduced risk of lung cancer. Study Details The analysis included 627,988 men (mean age = 57.9 years) and 817, 862 women (mean age = 54.8 years) from...
Deep Learning Assists in Detection of Lung Nodule Locations, Characteristics
A computer-aided diagnosis system using deep-learning analysis to detect lung lesion locations and quantitatively characterize the lesions on computed tomography (CT) images offered a fast and convenient approach for assisting radiologists in the diagnosis of lung nodule pathologies. These findings ...
Nearly One-Quarter of Completed Lung Cancer Clinical Trials Remain Unpublished
A new analysis has found that the results of up to one-fourth of completed lung cancer clinical trials are not published. This finding was published in a research letter by Al-Shbool et al in JAMA Network Open. “It is surprising to see that a quarter of trials that have been completed end up not...
Lorlatinib in Advanced ROS1-Positive NSCLC
As reported by Alice T. Shaw, MD, and colleagues in The Lancet Oncology, a phase I/II trial has shown overall and intracranial activity of the third-generation ALK and ROS1 tyrosine kinase inhibitor lorlatinib in patients with advanced ROS1-positive non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Lorlatinib...
Patient-Reported Outcomes Observed With Durvalumab Treatment After Chemoradiotherapy for Stage III Unresectable NSCLC
As reported in The Lancet Oncology by Hui et al, no clinically important differences in patient-reported outcomes were observed among patients receiving durvalumab vs placebo after chemoradiation for stage III unresectable non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in the phase III PACIFIC trial. The...
CASPIAN Trial: Addition of Durvalumab to Platinum/Etoposide for First-Line Treatment of Extensive-Stage SCLC
As reported in The Lancet by Luis Paz-Ares, MD, and colleagues, an interim analysis of the phase III CASPIAN trial has shown an overall survival benefit with the addition of durvalumab to platinum (either cisplatin or carboplatin)/etoposide chemotherapy in the first-line treatment of...
Out-of-Pocket Costs for Oral Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitors and Survival in Advanced Lung Cancer
Tyrosine kinase inhibitors have changed the paradigm of care for advanced EGFR- and ALK-positive non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), but not all patients taking these drugs may receive the same benefit. The results of a recent retrospective analysis suggest that higher out-of-pocket costs for...
IASLC North America: Lung Cancer Screening Among First Responders
National lung cancer screening guidelines are inadequate to diagnose patients who contract lung cancer from occupational exposure, including first responders, according to a study reported by Vershalee Shukla, MD, at the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer’s (IASLC) North America ...
RELAY Trial: Addition of Ramucirumab to Erlotinib in Previously Untreated, EGFR-Mutated Advanced NSCLC
As reported in The Lancet Oncology by Nakagawa et al, the phase III RELAY trial has shown that the addition of the VEGFR2 inhibitor ramucirumab to the EGFR inhibitor erlotinib improved progression-free survival in treatment-naive, advanced EGFR-mutated non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Study...
FLAURA Trial: First-Line Osimertinib Improves Overall Survival in EGFR-Mutated Advanced Lung Cancer
First-line treatment with osimertinib extended overall survival compared with the older tyrosine kinase inhibitors gefitinib and erlotinib in patients with EGFR-mutated advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), according to late-breaking final overall survival results of the phase III FLAURA...
Ceritinib Active in Treating Brain Metastases in Non–Small Cell Lung Cancer
The ALK inhibitor ceritinib demonstrated efficacy in patients with ALK-positive non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and active brain metastases, according to the results of the ASCEND-7 trial reported at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress 2019.1 Substantial intracranial...
ASCO Breakthrough: Computer-Aided Diagnosis System for Detecting Lung Nodule Locations and Characteristics
A computer-aided diagnosis system using deep-learning analysis to detect lung lesion locations and quantitatively characterize the lesions on computed tomography (CT) images offered a fast and convenient approach for assisting radiologists in the diagnosis of lung nodule pathologies. These findings ...
Andrew C. von Eschenbach, MD, Honored for Leadership in National Lung Screening Trial
The Prevent Cancer Foundation recently honored Andrew C. von Eschenbach, MD, with the James L. Mulshine, MD, Leadership Award for his work leading the National Lung Screening Trial (NLST), the first large-scale clinical trial for low-dose computed tomography (CT) lung cancer screening. The award...
Addition of Metformin to Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitor Therapy in EGFR-Mutant NSCLC
In a single-center phase II trial reported in JAMA Oncology, Arrieta et al found that the addition of metformin to EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitor therapy resulted in improved progression-free and overall survival in patients with non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with an activating EGFR mutation....
Preclinical Study Finds Exposure to E-Cigarette Smoke Increased Risk of Cancer in Mice
Exposure to e-cigarette smoke caused mice to develop lung cancer, according to findings from a preclinical study published by Tang et al in the Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS). The study found that 9 of 40 mice (22.5%) exposed to e-cigarette smoke...
ESMO 2019: Overall Survival With Immunotherapy Doublet vs Chemotherapy in Advanced NSCLC
As reported at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress 2019 (Abstract LBA4) and simultaneously in The New England Journal of Medicine by Matthew D. Hellmann, MD, and colleagues, the phase III CheckMate 227 trial has shown that nivolumab plus ipilimumab improved overall survival vs ...
ESMO 2019: Liquid Biopsy to Determine Best Treatment for Patients With NSCLC
Patients with advanced lung cancer might soon be offered a blood test that could help decide the best treatment for them, instead of relying on tumor biopsy analysis. New data from the BFAST trial presented by Gadgeel et al at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress 2019 (Abstract ...
Selpercatinib: Precision Medicine for RET Fusion–Positive NSCLC
Selpercatinib (LOXO-292), a RET kinase inhibitor, demonstrated antitumor activity in the lungs and brain and durable responses with acceptable tolerability in patients with RET fusion–positive non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), according to an updated analysis of the LIBRETTO-001 registration...
Expert Point of View: Myung-Ju Ahn, MD, and Roy Herbst, MD, PhD
Formal discussant Myung-Ju Ahn, MD, of Samsung Medical Center Sungkyunkwan University, Seoul, South Korea, said that the CASPIAN results were similar to those of IMpower133, which found that the addition of the immune checkpoint inhibitor atezolizumab to etoposide/carboplatin significantly...
Novel KRAS Inhibitor Shows Activity in Early Study of Advanced Non–Small Cell Lung Cancer
The investigational KRAS inhibitor AMG 510 yielded clinical activity in patients with advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), according to updated results of a small ongoing phase I trial reported at the 2019 International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC) World Conference on...
Studies Report Prolonged Long-Term Survival With Immunotherapy vs Chemotherapy in Advanced NSCLC
Longer-term follow-up of patients with advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who are treated with immunotherapy have appreciably extended survival at 5 years, suggesting that for some patients, this disease can be managed as a chronic condition. These findings are based on two presentations ...
Suresh S. Ramalingam, MD, on Osimertinib vs Comparator EGFR TKI in EGFR-Mutated NSCLC: The FLAURA Trial
Suresh S. Ramalingam, MD, of Emory University, discusses results from the final overall survival analysis of the phase III FLAURA trial in EGFR-mutated advanced non–small cell lung cancer, which showed that osimertinib provided a survival benefit vs comparator EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitor therapy in the first-line setting (Abstract LBA5).
Solange Peters, MD, PhD, on NSCLC: CheckMate 227 Trial of Nivolumab/Ipilimumab vs Chemotherapy
Solange Peters, MD, PhD, of the Oncology Department of CHUV, discusses study findings from the first phase III trial to show PD-1 and CTLA-4 inhibition is effective in non–small cell lung cancer, with improved overall survival vs chemotherapy (Abstract LBA4).
ESMO 2019: ASCEND-7: Ceritinib for Patients With ALK-Positive NSCLC Metastatic to the Brain
Patients with ALK-positive non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) that was metastatic to the brain at baseline demonstrated whole-body, intracranial, and extracranial responses following treatment with ceritinib, according to findings from the phase II ASCEND-7 study presented by Chow et al at the...
Laura Q.M. Chow, MD, on Metastatic NSCLC: Results of the ASCEND-7 Trial on Ceritinib
Laura Q.M. Chow, MD, of the University of Texas at Austin, Dell Medical School and LIVESTRONG Cancer Institutes, discusses phase II study findings that showed the ALK inhibitor ceritinib achieved durable intracranial response in patients with ALK-positive non–small cell lung cancer that has spread to the brain (Abstract 1478O).
Differences By Sex in Lung Cancer Incidence and Mortality: What Is Known, and What Does It Mean?
The finding that women have a higher incidence of lung cancer than men of the same age and with the same smoking history was unexpected when it first emerged from studies in the 1990s. Just as unexpected was a subsequent finding. Even with their higher risk, women have a lower mortality and higher...
Lung Disease Associated With E-Cigarette Use
On September 12, 2019, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced the updated number of confirmed and probable cases of lung disease associated with e-cigarette product use, or vaping. The new case count is the first national aggregate based on the new CDC case definition...
AACR Disparities: Uninsured/Underinsured, Lower-Income, and/or Minority Patients More Likely to Receive Cancer Diagnosis After ED Visit
Medicare patients from lower socioeconomic groups and several ethnic minority groups were more likely to be diagnosed with cancer following an emergency department visit, according to results of a study presented at the 12th American Association for Cancer Research Conference on The Science of...
Andreas Rimner, MD, on the PACIFIC Trial: Durvalumab for Stage III NSCLC
Andreas Rimner, MD, of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, discusses study findings showing that, for patients with stage III non–small cell lung cancer, durvalumab reduced the rate of and time to disease progression vs placebo and also reduced the number of new distant lesions (Abstract LBA6).
Expert Point of View: Alex A. Adjei, MD, PhD
Alex A. Adjei, MD, PhD, of Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, who was not involved in KEYNOTE-189 or KEYNOTE-021, provided some perspective on the exploratory analyses of tumor mutational burden from these and other studies. “Four studies at this meeting presented data on tumor mutational burden...
ASTRO 2019: Patterns of Disease Progression in Patients With Unresectable Stage III NSCLC: Analysis of the PACIFIC Trial
Andreas Rimner, MD, of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, presented an update of the landmark PACIFIC trial at the 61st Annual Meeting of the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) (Abstract LBA-6). In earlier reports from the randomized phase III trial, Antonia et al had evaluated...
ASTRO 2019: SBRT After Disease Progression on Immunotherapy Increases PFS in Patients With Metastatic NSCLC
Non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) accounts for the vast majority of all lung cancers—between 80% and 85% of those diagnosed in the United States—and is among the most deadly cancers for both men and women, exceeding the mortality rate of colon, breast, and pancreatic cancers combined. The results...
FDA Pipeline: Breakthrough Therapy Designation in Lung Cancer, Orphan Drug Designations in Myeloma and Soft-Tissue Sarcoma
Recently, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted Breakthrough Therapy designation to tepotinib for metastatic non–small cell lung cancer harboring MET exon 14 skipping alterations, and Orphan Drug designations to novel chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapies in both multiple myeloma ...
