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In a pooled analysis of four trials of platinum adjuvant therapy vs observation in resected early-stage non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), Shepherd et al found no prognostic effect of KRAS or EGFR with TP53 comutation but a potential negative predictive effect for adjuvant therapy with TP53...
After the data were presented, Ashish Saxena, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor of Medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College and Assistant Attending Physician at the NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, New York, weighed in on the CA209-003 study. “The results of this trial are exciting and give hope to...
At 5 years, the overall survival rate was 16% in patients with advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) treated with single-agent nivolumab (Opdivo), according to follow-up of a phase Ib dose-ranging study (CA209-003), presented at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual...
A late-breaking subanalysis of the phase III CONVERT trial presented by Gomes et al at the 2017 European Lung Cancer Conference (ELCC) shows that white blood cell–boosting drugs are safe during concurrent chemoradiotherapy of small cell lung cancer (SCLC, Abstract LBA2_PR). “The...
Some patients with advanced lung cancer benefit from immunotherapy, even after the disease has progressed as evaluated by standard criteria, according to research presented by Artal-Cortes et al at the 2017 European Lung Cancer Conference (ELCC, Abstract 96PD). The findings pave the way for certain ...
White blood cell counts may predict whether patients with lung cancer will benefit from immunotherapy, according to research presented by Tiseo et al at the 2017 European Lung Cancer Conference (ELCC, Abstract 30PD). “Immune checkpoint inhibitors such as nivolumab [Opdivo] and...
Osimertinib (Tagrisso) improved cancer-related symptoms in patients with advanced lung cancer, according to an analysis of patient-reported outcomes from the AURA3 phase III clinical trial presented by Lee et al at the 2017 European Lung Cancer Conference (ELCC, Abstract 85O). “With my...
In a study reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Jamal-Hanjani et al found that early stage non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) tumors were characterized by widespread intratumor genomic heterogeneity and that increased subclonal copy-number alterations in this context were...
Men may need more frequent lung cancer screening than women, according to research to be presented by Koo et al at the 2017 European Lung Cancer Conference (ELCC). The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommends annual screening for lung cancer with low-dose computed tomography (CT) in adults...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Mark G. Kris, MD, of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, and colleagues, ASCO and Cancer Care Ontario (CCO) have issued an update to the ASCO/CCO clinical practice guideline on adjuvant systemic therapy and adjuvant radiation therapy for stage...
On April 28, 2017, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted accelerated approval to brigatinib (Alunbrig) for the treatment of patients with metastatic anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK)-positive non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who have had disease progression on or are...
Although the duration and magnitude of clinical response are unpredictable in patients with ALK-rearranged non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) treated with crizotinib (Xalkori), eventually all patients develop resistance to the drug. A study by Pailler et al evaluating whether circulating...
On April 27, the investigational next-generation ALK/ROS1 tyrosine kinase inhibitor lorlatinib was granted Breakthrough Therapy designation from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of patients with anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK)-positive metastatic non–small cell...
Patients with lung cancer treated with programmed cell death protein 1/programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-1/PD-L1) checkpoint inhibitors may be at increased risk of adverse events after receiving the seasonal influenza vaccination, according to the first study measuring this effect. The results, to ...
A Japanese phase III trial has shown no survival benefit of prophylactic cranial irradiation vs observation in patients with extensive-disease small cell lung cancer who had any response to platinum-based doublet chemotherapy and no brain metastases at baseline. These findings were reported in The...
In an Italian phase III trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Marcello Tiseo, MD, of Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria, Parma, Italy, and colleagues found that adding first-line bevacizumab (Avastin) to cisplatin/etoposide did not prolong overall survival in patients with...
Read more in the Journal of Oncology Practice (JOP). Visit ASCOPubs.org/journal/jop Patients with stage I lung cancer are achieving excellent local tumor control, thanks to an evolution in radiotherapy and surgical approaches. Jeffrey A. Bogart, MD, Professor and Chair of the Department of...
An analysis of patients from 4 prospective radiotherapy trials for locally advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) conducted at 2 centers in Michigan showed that grade ≥ 3 cardiac events occurred in more than 10% of patients. The study was reported by Dess et al in the Journal of...
Treatment with the immune checkpoint inhibitor nivolumab (Opdivo) yielded durable responses in some patients with advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), with a 5-year survival rate of 16%, according to data from a phase I clinical trial presented by Brahmer et al at the American...
On March 30, 2017, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted regular approval to osimertinib (Tagrisso) for the treatment of patients with metastatic epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) T790M mutation–positive non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), as detected by an...
In a study of four immunohistochemistry programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1) expression assays registered with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), scoring was highly concordant for expression in tumor cells but poorly concordant for scoring in immune cells in non–small cell lung...
Promising 3-year outcomes were found in patients from a Japanese phase I/II study of alectinib (Alecensa) in previously treated patients with ALK-positive non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The findings were reported by Tamura et al in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. Study Details In the ...
Anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) rearrangements define a subset of non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients for whom ALK inhibitors are highly effective. In PROFILE 1014, the multitargeted ALK inhibitor crizotinib (Xalkori) was shown to be superior to platinum/pemetrexed (Alimta) chemotherapy...
In the phase III ASCEND-4 trial reported in The Lancet, Jean-Charles Soria, MD, of Institut Gustave Roussy, and colleagues found that ceritinib (Zykadia) improved progression-free survival vs platinum-based chemotherapy in the first-line treatment of advanced anaplastic lymphoma kinase...
Discussant Heather L. McArthur, MD, MPH, Medical Director of Breast Oncology at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, called the plinabulin findings “provocative,” especially considering the substantial impact on durability of response. Specifically with the addition of plinabulin to docetaxel, ...
The investigational small-molecule plinabulin yielded some interesting benefits when added to docetaxel in previously treated patients with stage III/IV non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), in a phase II study.1 Although the benefit of the doublet was modest in the overall study population, the...
The International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC) has endorsed a report released by the Core Team for Tobacco Control that outlines key action items that can be taken immediately to accelerate progress toward ending cigarette smoking in adults. Issuing their Executive Summary ...
Ann W. Silk, MD, of Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey, New Brunswick, presented the day’s highlights and commented that the study by Hellmann et al shows the utility, and, in fact, the necessity, of developing a new means of estimating outcomes for patients treated with immunotherapies....
Statistical modeling of long-term survival from the KEYNOTE trials of the programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1)–inhibitor pembrolizumab (Keytruda) estimates that one-quarter of appropriately selected patients with advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) may attain long-term survival.1 “In...
In a report from the Global, Multicenter RET Registry in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Gautschi et al documented response rates with multikinase RET inhibitors in patients with RET-rearranged non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Study Details The study involved registry data (through...
Patients in their 80s and 90s who have early-stage lung cancer but cannot undergo an operation can be treated safely and effectively with stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT), according to research presented by Cassidy et al at the 2017 Multidisciplinary Thoracic Cancers Symposium (Abstract...
New research led by a radiation oncologist at Roswell Park Cancer Institute indicates that less may be more when it comes to some forms of radiation therapy for cancer. In a presentation highlighted in a plenary session (Abstract 4) at the 2017 Multidisciplinary Thoracic Cancers Symposium in San...
Douglas E. Wood, MD, of the University of Washington, discusses the importance of broad access to and education about lung cancer screening—now approved for people at high risk for the disease—and the need for expanded criteria for screening eligibility.
Charles B. Simone, II, MD, of the University of Maryland Medical Center, discusses results from a large prospective study in locally advanced non–small cell lung cancer, which suggest that circulating tumor cells may be a promising biomarker of progressive or recurrent disease and may help guide early salvage treatment strategies (Abstract 3).
Boris Sepesi, MD, of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, discusses immune cells within tumors and the potential role for checkpoint inhibitor therapy in the neoadjuvant setting of locally advanced lung cancer (Abstract 7).
Zofia Piotrowska, MD, of the Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, discusses heterogeneity and variation in resistance mechanisms among EGFR-mutant non–small cell lung cancer patients with at least one postresistance biopsy (Abstract 1).
Zhongxing Liao, MD, of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, discusses the continued improvement in planning, delivery, and patient selection for proton therapy, which can both reduce radiation exposure and increase tumor dose.
Jennifer Ho, MD, of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer, discusses study results on the use of intensity-modulated proton therapy, which can provide durable local control with minimal toxicity in patients who can have extended survivals; the data also suggest that higher doses may improve outcomes (Abstract 5).
Tracey L. Evans, MD, of the University of Pennsylvania, discusses the data supporting use of chemotherapy with radiation in locally advanced non–small cell lung cancer, targeted treatments and immunotherapy, and some of the controversies now debated.
Martin J. Edelman, MD, of Fox Chase Cancer Center, discusses study findings from a phase III study of celecoxib in addition to standard chemotherapy for advanced non–small cell lung cancer with COX-2 overexpression (Abstract 2).
Maximilian Diehn, MD, PhD, of Stanford School of Medicine, discusses promising clinical applications of circulating tumor DNA in patients with thoracic malignancies: noninvasive detection of resistance mechanisms to targeted agents and treatment response assessment.
Shraddha M. Dalwadi, MBA, MD Candidate in the class of 2017 at Texas A&M Health Science Center, discusses findings from a SEER database study that showed African Americans and American Indians with stage I non–small cell lung cancer were less likely to receive definitive treatment and had lower odds for survival (Abstract 9).
Richard J. Cassidy III, MD, of Emory Winship Cancer Institute, discusses results from a multicenter analysis of stereotactic body radiotherapy for early-stage non-small cell lung cancer in patients 80 years and older; the patients tolerated the treatment well and had excellent estimated rates of 5-year cancer-specific survival (Abstract 111).
Kamran Ahmed, MD, of the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute, discusses results from a small study of pneumonitis in patients who received thoracic radiotherapy within 6 months of anti–PD-1 therapy, anti–PD-L1 therapy, anti–CTLA-4 therapy, or some combination of these drugs (Abstract 10).
An emerging approach for cancer treatment seeks to combine radiation therapy with immune checkpoint inhibitors to more effectively control tumors in the chest with an acceptable risk of severe treatment-related side effects. About 10% of patients in a retrospective analysis of metastatic lung...
Analysis of the largest American cancer database indicates that racial disparities persist in the treatment and outcomes of patients diagnosed with stage I non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Despite increased availability of potentially curative treatments for early-stage NSCLC,...
A new study offers hope for patients with recurrent lung cancer, who historically have been considered ineligible for curative treatment. In the largest analysis to date of reirradiation using intensity-modulated proton therapy for lung and other thoracic tumors, more than three-fourths of patients ...
The genetic mutations underlying treatment resistance in non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) are more complex and dynamic than previously thought. Analysis of 355 biopsied tumors from patients who acquired resistance to epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) inhibitors, the most common form...
Results from a prospective clinical trial showed that a blood test looking at specific biomarkers was able to detect recurrences of lung cancer an average of 6 months before conventional imaging methods found evidence of recurrence. In the largest prospective clinical trial to date of circulating...
In the UK phase III LUNGSTAR study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Seckl et al found that adding pravastatin to first-line standard chemotherapy did not improve overall survival in patients with small cell lung cancer (SCLC). Numerous large prospective cohort and registry studies...