© 2023 HSP News Service, L.L.C.
Recent advances in medical imaging have led to more accurate detection and management of early thoracic diseases such as lung cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and cardiovascular disease—three of the top four leading causes of death in the United States. Unfortunately, if not...
In a cohort of the phase II ZENITH20-2 trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Le et al found that the tyrosine kinase inhibitor poziotinib produced responses in previously treated patients with non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and HER2 exon 20 insertion mutations. Study Details In...
The immunomodulatory effects of neoadjuvant immune-based treatments for non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) are becoming clearer, in part due to data presented by Schmidt et al at the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) 2021 Annual Meeting (Abstract 962). The first integrated analysis of...
Stephanie T. Schmidt, PhD, of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, discusses the first integrated examination of the immunomodulatory effects of neoadjuvant chemotherapy, nivolumab, and nivolumab plus chemotherapy in resected non–small cell lung cancer (Abstract 962).
Low-dose lung cancer screening by computed tomography (CT) is associated with a 16% relative reduction in lung cancer mortality over no lung cancer screening of high-risk individuals, based on a meta-analysis conducted by investigators with the United Kingdom Lung Cancer Screening (UKLS) trial.1...
Previously treated patients with HER2-positive non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) achieved encouraging response rates and duration of response to the antibody-drug conjugate fam-trastuzumab deruxtecan-nxki (T-DXd) in the phase II DESTINY-Lung01 trial. These results were reported at the European...
Stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) lengthens progression-free survival for patients with advanced lung cancer who have oligoprogression (ie, tumors that have not been fully responsive to systemic chemotherapy or immunotherapy), according to an interim analysis of the CURB oligoprogression...
In the United States, the incidence-based mortality related to non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) has decreased by approximately 3% each year since 2008 in men; during the same period, the mortality in women decreased by 2% to 4% annually.1 Although multiple factors are likely responsible for the...
The new 2021 State of Lung Cancer report reveals that the 5-year survival rate for lung cancer increased from 14.5% nationally to 23.7%, yet it remains significantly lower among communities of color. The American Lung Association’s fourth annual report also highlights how the toll of lung cancer...
In a new study published by Gounant et al in the Journal of Thoracic Oncology, researchers from France showed that SARS–CoV-2 vaccines are safe and effective in patients with thoracic cancer, most of whom are immunized after two doses. A third shot given to 11% of patients with persistent low...
When I was diagnosed with small cell lung cancer in 1992, at age 38, I remember thinking, “I wish I had breast cancer.” Breast cancer elicits such sympathy from people. A diagnosis of small cell lung cancer mainly gets you stern looks of disapproval and disappointment. There is so much stigma...
Adjuvant immunotherapy with atezolizumab after standard chemotherapy improved disease-free survival and time to locoregional and distant relapse compared with best supportive care in prespecified subgroups of patients with stage II to IIIA non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), according to an...
In the Japanese phase III IMPACT trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Tada et al found that adjuvant gefitinib did not improve disease-free survival vs cisplatin/vinorelbine in patients with completely resected stage II to IIIA EGFR-mutant non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). In the...
In a study reported in JAMA Oncology, Apar Kishor Ganti, MD, MS, and colleagues found that the incidence of non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) has decreased in the United States in recent years. They also found that prevalence has increased, likely in association with more effective treatment and...
Matthew Manning, MD, of Cone Health Cancer Center, discusses findings that showed changes to the way cancer care is delivered may help eliminate racial disparities in survival among patients with early-stage lung and breast cancers. Identifying and addressing obstacles that kept patients from finishing radiation treatments for cancer were associated with improved 5-year survival rates for all patients (Abstract 53).
Findings from a novel telemedicine effort to screen patients for lung cancer screening during the COVID-19 pandemic show that virtual single-visit screenings may be just as effective as single-visit screenings done in person, according to a study presented by Magarinos et al at the American College ...
C. Jillian Tsai, MD, PhD, of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, discusses results from the first randomized trial of stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) to treat oligoprogressive, metastatic lung and breast cancers. The standard of care for patients with these types of tumors is to switch to a different systemic treatment. Adding local therapy such as SBRT may help treat drug-resistant lesions (Abstract LBA3).
In the phase III CONFIRM trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Dean A. Fennell, FRCP, PhD, and colleagues found that nivolumab improved progression-free and overall survival vs placebo in patients with relapsed malignant mesothelioma. In October 2020, the combination of nivolumab and ipilimumab...
A study presented by Manning et al at the 2021 American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) Annual Meeting (Abstract 53) showed that interventions to help Black patients overcome obstacles to completion of treatment can impact disparities in survival outcomes between Black and White patients...
The first indication I had stage IV lung cancer was a persistent cough during the beginning of the cold-and-flu season in the fall of 2013. I was 35 years old, never smoked, and in otherwise excellent health, so I ignored the cough for several months until I noticed my breathing had also become...
On September 15, 2021, the kinase inhibitor mobocertinib was granted accelerated approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for adults with locally advanced or metastatic non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with EGFR exon 20 insertion mutations, as detected by an FDA-approved test,...
Pretreatment circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) levels in patients with non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) appear to be a more accurate predictor of long-term survival than classic survival surrogates, according to research presented during the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer...
The combination of dual checkpoint inhibition plus chemotherapy could be the new standard of care in first-line metastatic non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), according to data presented during the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC) 2021 World Conference on Lung Cancer.1 ...
Patients with non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and brain metastasis derived significant benefit from treatment with the monoclonal antibody atezolizumab plus chemotherapy, according to the multicenter phase II Atezo-Brain trial.1 The study was presented at the International Association for the...
Recent advances in cancer genomics and targeted therapies have changed the treatment landscape for lung cancer, but disparities in access to precision medicine remain, according to data presented during the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC) 2021 World Conference on Lung ...
In a phase I/II trial reported in JAMA Oncology, Caicun Zhou, PhD, MD, and colleagues found that mobocertinib, a first-in-class oral kinase inhibitor, produced durable responses in platinum-pretreated patients with EGFR exon 20 insertion–positive metastatic non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The...
The combination of the KRAS inhibitor sotorasib with afatinib, a pan-ErbB tyrosine kinase inhibitor, was feasible in treating patients with non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and mutated KRAS whose disease had progressed on prior therapies, including KRAS inhibitors alone, according to interim...
In preclinical models, combining an investigational Aurora kinase A (AURKA) inhibitor with a KRAS inhibitor or a WEE1 inhibitor showed efficacy against lung cancer cells with intrinsic or acquired resistance to KRAS inhibition, according to results presented by Lee et al at the AACR-NCI-EORTC...
On October 15, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved atezolizumab (Tecentriq) for adjuvant treatment following resection and platinum-based chemotherapy in patients with stage II to IIIA non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) whose tumors have PD-L1 expression on ≥ 1% of tumor cells, as...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Devarakonda et al found that never-smokers with lung adenocarcinoma had a high frequency of RTK/RAS/RAF pathway driver alterations—similar to smokers with lung adenocarcinoma—but also harbored a significantly higher total frequency of...
Neoadjuvant atezolizumab combined with pemetrexed and cisplatin, with maintenance atezolizumab, proved to be safe and feasible, offering a hint of benefit in patients with resectable pleural mesothelioma, in a small multicenter study presented at the International Association for the Study of Lung...
Charles M. Rudin, MD, PhD, Hassenfeld Professor and Chief of the Thoracic Oncology Service, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, commented that although ATLANTIS1 “unfortunately joins the ranks of negative phase III studies in patients with recurrent small cell lung cancer,” there are “some...
As a second-line treatment for patients with small cell lung cancer, lurbinectedin plus doxorubicin failed to improve overall survival in the multicenter ATLANTIS trial but did provide other benefits, including better tolerability, researchers reported at the 2021 World Conference on Lung Cancer,...
Ichiro Yoshino, MD, PhD, Professor and Chairman of the Department of General Thoracic Surgery, Chiba University Graduate School of Medicine, Japan, reviewed the finer details of the IMpower010 exploratory analysis.1 He maintained that atezolizumab’s benefit does, indeed, seem to favor some patient...
In an exploratory analysis of the pivotal phase III IMpower010 trial in stage II–IIIA non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), continued treatment with the monoclonal antibody atezolizumab after surgery and chemotherapy improved disease-free survival regardless of the type of surgery or chemotherapy...
Medicare expansion under the Affordable Care Act may have improved outcomes for patients with lung cancer, the leading cause of cancer death in the United States, according to data presented at the 2021 ASCO Quality Care Symposium.1 The National Cancer Database analysis of nearly 12,000 patients...
Study discussant Jyoti Patel, MD, Medical Director of Thoracic Oncology and Assistant Director for Clinical Research at the Lurie Cancer Center of Northwestern University, Chicago, called the research “important for many reasons.” Although the study analyzed data from both open and closed claims,...
Maintenance durvalumab, the standard-of-care treatment for patients with unresectable stage III non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), remains significantly underutilized, according to data presented at the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC) 2021 World Conference on Lung...
Collectively, Black Americans have the highest death rate and shortest survival of any racial/ethnic group in the United States for most cancers; Black men also have the highest cancer incidence rate. Despite improvements in survival disparities between Black and White Americans in specific cancers ...
In the phase III IMpower010 trial reported in The Lancet, Enriqueta Felip, MD, and colleagues found that the use of adjuvant atezolizumab after adjuvant platinum-based chemotherapy significantly improved disease-free survival vs best supportive care in patients with resected stage II to IIIA...
Eleven years ago this month, the scans and exams that hold the most power to spot the early signs of cancer became available for free to many American adults through the passing of the Affordable Care Act. Now, two new studies show that when those screening tests reveal potentially troubling signs, ...
Leticia Nogueira, PhD, MPH, of the American Cancer Society, discusses results from a study designed to evaluate the impact of Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act (ACA). In Medicaid-expansion states, mortality among patients after lung cancer surgery decreased from 2.4% before the ACA to 0.8% after the ACA, with no significant change in non–Medicaid-expansion states.
In a single-center phase II trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Elamin et al found that the tyrosine kinase inhibitor poziotinib showed activity in previously treated patients with HER2 exon 20–mutant advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). As related by the investigators,...
Nasser K. Altorki, MD, of Weill Medical College of Cornell University and NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, discusses phase III data from the IMpower010 study, which showed that, compared with best supportive care, atezolizumab improved disease-free survival in patients with stage II–IIIA non–small cell lung cancer. These findings applied across most disease stages and most surgery types and chemotherapy regimens, as well as in patients with nodal involvement (Abstract PL02.05).
Researchers have discovered that grouping EGFR mutations by structure and function provides an accurate framework to match patients with non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) to the right drugs. The findings, published by Robichaux et al in Nature, identify four subgroups of mutations and introduce a...
As reported in The Lancet Oncology by Chang et al, long-term results of the single-institution revised STARS trial indicate that overall survival in patients receiving stereotactic ablative radiotherapy (SABR) for operable stage IA non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) was noninferior to that in a...
Robin Cornelissen, MD, PhD, of Erasmus University in Rotterdam, discusses phase II findings from the ZENITH20-4 study, which explored the question of whether poziotinib could benefit patients whose newly diagnosed non–small cell lung cancer harbors EGFR and HER2 exon 20 mutations. Potentially, this novel tyrosine kinase inhibitor may fill an unmet medical need (Abstract LBA46).
By the time my non–small cell lung cancer was diagnosed in 2004, it had already reached stage IIIB, and I was told there was little that could be done for me. I was 56, a wife, the mother of 3 children, and at the peak of my career as president of Olympian Oil. Although my aunt, brother, and...
Benjamin Besse, MD, PhD, of the Institut Gustave Roussy, discusses final phase III findings from the Atalante-1 trial, which explored the question of whether the OSE2101 vaccine is more beneficial than standard treatment for patients with HLA-A2–positive non–small cell lung cancer after immune checkpoint inhibitors are no longer effective (Abstract LBA47).
In the phase II DESTINY-Lung01 trial, presented at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress 2021 (Abstract LBA45) and concurrently reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Bob T. Li, MD, PhD, MPH, and colleagues found that fam-trastuzumab deruxtecan-nxki produced durable...