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A new study by researchers at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center–Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute (OSUCCC– James) has identified a mechanism by which cancer cells develop resistance to a class of drugs called fibroblast growth...
In the phase II extension component of the phase I/II AURA trial, reported by Yang et al in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, osimertinib (Tagrisso) was found to be highly active in epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) tyrosine kinase inhibitor–pretreated T790M-positive advanced...
Immunotherapy has been a major advance in lung cancer, but it is not without its challenges, according to Sanjay Popat, PhD, FRCP, a consultant medical oncologist and reader in cancer medicine at the Royal Marsden Hospital, London, UK. He reviewed some of the challenges pertaining to the use of...
“With the negative results of this phase III trial and the discontinuation of ganetespib development, is this the end for this once promising drug class in non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), or is there still an opportunity for heat shock protein (Hsp) inhibitors to make a meaningful impact?”...
Despite positive results in the phase II GALAXY-1 study, the addition of ganetespib to docetaxel in the phase III GALAXY-2 study did not improve overall survival or progression-free survival in patients with advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), according to data presented by Rathi Pillai,...
To summarize the lessons learned from the development of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR)-targeted therapy, one only has to go back about 10 years, according to Frances A. Shepherd, MD, Scott Taylor Chair in Lung Cancer Research at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre and Professor of Medicine at ...
Three invited discussants explored the results of these recent immunotherapy studies in lung cancer as well as their potential clinical implications at the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer 17th World Conference on Lung Cancer. KEYNOTE-021 trial “Pembrolizumab (Keytruda) is...
Combining immunotherapies with each other or with other agents such as chemotherapy and growth factor inhibitors holds promise for better tapping their benefit in patients with lung cancer, data from several studies suggest. Results show that strategic combinations can achieve higher response...
In a study reported at the 2017 Quality Care Symposium by Zheng et al (Abstract 3) and published in the Journal of Oncology Practice by Jackman et al, researchers explored the use of clinical pathways to support clinical decision-making and manage resources for patients with late-stage...
Thomas J. Smith, MD, of the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins, summarizes two papers for which he was a discussant: reducing overuse of colony-stimulating factors without compromising the safety of patients with lung cancer receiving chemotherapy, and a cost-and-survival analysis before and after implementing Dana-Farber Clinical Pathways for patients with stage IV non–small cell lung cancer (Abstracts 3, 52).
Roy S. Herbst, MD, PhD, of the Yale Cancer Center, discusses immunotherapy as a standard of care in lung cancer, critical biomarkers, and scientifically guided combination treatment, which will be the future of lung cancer immunotherapy.
Limo Chen, PhD, of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, discusses co-inhibition of CD38 and PD-L1, which leads to improved antitumor immune response, reducing tumor growth and metastasis. (Abstract 79)
The AURA3 study—reported by Mok and colleagues and reviewed in this issue of The ASCO Post—confirms the dramatic activity of osimertinib (Tagrisso) in patients with advanced epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR)-mutant non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and acquired resistance to prior EGFR...
In the phase III AURA3 trial reported in The New England Journal of Medicine by Tony S. Mok, MD, of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and colleagues, osimertinib (Tagrisso) significantly improved progression-free survival vs platinum/pemetrexed (Alimta) among patients with epidermal growth...
This CE/CME/CU-accredited supplement is jointly provided by: To earn credit/contact hours, you must read all the articles in this supplement and then go to https://education.annenberg.net/IASLC Release date: February 25, 2017 Expiration date: February 25, 2018Annenberg Center for Health...
Programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1) expression assessed by immunohistochemistry in formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tumor tissues is currently the main predictive biomarker for the benefit of anti–programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) and anti–PD-L1 agents in patients with non–small cell lung ...
A revised tumor classification based on 70,967 evaluable patients with non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and 6,189 patients with small cell lung cancer is now available to lung cancer specialists around the world in the form of the 8th edition of the tumor, node, and metastasis (TNM)...
“This is a very important systematic review,” commented invited discussant, Paul Mitchell, MD, Associate Professor at the Olivia Newton-John Cancer and Wellness Centre in Melbourne, Australia. “There are theoretical reasons why programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1) inhibitors might cause less...
The two main classes of immune checkpoint inhibitors used to treat non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) have essentially the same efficacy and toxicity profiles, according to a systematic review and meta-analysis of 23 trials with a total of 5,899 patients.1 Results showed that about one-fifth of...
The KEYNOTE-028 results confirm that pembrolizumab (Keytruda) is active in extensive-stage small cell lung cancer (SCLC) and lay to rest safety concerns stemming from the higher risk of paraneoplastic syndromes in this disease, according to invited discussant, Leora Horn, MD, MSc, Clinical...
The programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) inhibitor pembrolizumab (Keytruda) has shown durable antitumor activity in patients with extensive-stage small cell lung cancer (SCLC) that expresses programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1), according to an update of the KEYNOTE-028 trial.1 “Median overall ...
Increasing experience with immunotherapy for lung cancer in both the lab and the clinic is helping to refine treatment approaches and point the way forward, according to Naiyer Rizvi, MD, Director of both Thoracic Oncology and Immunotherapeutics at Columbia University Medical Center in New York....
The information contained in this Clinical Trials Resource Guide includes actively recruiting clinical studies focused on immunotherapy in lung cancer. All of the studies are listed on the National Institutes of Health website at ClinicalTrials.gov. Study Title: A Randomized, Double-Blind, Phase...
Understanding, anticipating, and managing the toxicities associated with immunotherapies for lung cancer are key to steps to safely using and achieving the most benefit from these new agents, according to Beth Eaby-Sandy, MSN, CRNP, OCN, a nurse practitioner at the University of Pennsylvania’s...
“The progression-free and overall survival curves of CheckMate 057 suggest the presence of two patient populations with respect to nivolumab (Opdivo): a relatively sensitive one and a less sensitive, possibly even resistant, one, according to invited discussant Paul Mitchell, MD, Associate...
Prognostic factors and tumor expression of programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1) predict early mortality among patients with previously treated nonsquamous advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who receive nivolumab instead of docetaxel. But these features are not reliable for excluding...
“The KEYNOTE-010 updated survival is looking even more impressive with the benefit of pembrolizumab (Keytruda) over docetaxel. Survival at 2 years with pembrolizumab is more than double that with chemotherapy,” commented invited discussant, Paul Mitchell, MD, Associate Professor at the Olivia...
Pembrolizumab’s benefit in previously treated advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) that expresses programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1) is long lasting, persisting even after therapy ends, suggests an update of the KEYNOTE-010 trial.1 Initial results of the randomized phase II/III trial,...
“Taken together, ATLANTIC’s findings show that “durvalumab is active in heavily pretreated patients, and its degree of activity is related to programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1) expression,” commented invited discussant, Michael Boyer, MBBS, PhD, Chief Clinical Officer and Conjoint Chair of...
The immune checkpoint inhibitor durvalumab (also known as MEDI4736) is active and achieves durable responses in patients with heavily pretreated advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) that does not have any epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) or anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK)...
“The OAK subgroup analyses showed the benefit of atezolizumab (Tecentriq) virtually “across the board,” including among patients with programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1)–negative tumors, remarked invited discussant, Michael Boyer, MBBS, PhD, Chief Clinical Officer and Conjoint Chair of Medical...
A wide range of patients with advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) see a survival advantage from second- or third-line atezolizumab (Tecentriq) as compared with docetaxel, according to new data from the OAK trial.1 The main results of the randomized phase III trial, previously reported,...
“This was a very nice analysis using a well-validated group of instruments with high compliance. And this is something that is one of the bugbears of quality-of-life analyses—compliance to completion of the instruments,” commented invited discussant, Michael Boyer, MBBS, PhD, Chief Clinical Officer ...
When used as first-line therapy for advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), pembrolizumab (Keytruda) yields better health-related quality of life than platinum-based chemotherapy, suggest new data from the randomized phase III KEYNOTE-024 trial.1 After 15 weeks of treatment, changes in scores...
“There are several possible ways to move first-line immunotherapy for non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) forward, according to invited discussant Edward B. Garon, MD, Director of Thoracic Oncology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles. “We could expand...
In 2016, the KEYNOTE-024 trial set the bar for first-line immunotherapy in non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Trial results showed that pembrolizumab (Keytruda), an antibody to programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1), reduced the risk of disease progression or death by 50% and the risk of death by...
“Immunotherapy for lung cancer is a paradigm shift. I would never have thought when I started my career taking care of lung cancer patients in the mid 1990s that we’d now be substituting chemotherapy with an antibody immunotherapy in 2017. It’s incredible,” commented Roy S. Herbst, MD, PhD, Chief...
Lung cancer is the second most commonly diagnosed cancer and the leading cause of cancer-related mortality in the United States, with an estimated 224,390 new cases and 158,080 deaths from the disease in 2016.1 Despite improving survival rates in recent decades, only about 18% of patients are...
In a retrospective study in three U.S. institutions reported in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Pelosof et al found that never smokers accounted for an increasing proportion of cases of non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) during the period from 1990 to 2013. The study used data...
In an individual patient data meta-analysis reported in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Lee et al found no difference in overall survival for first-line treatment with the first-generation epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) tyrosine kinase inhibitors gefitinib (Iressa) or...
In an Italian phase III trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Tiseo et al found that adding first-line bevacizumab (Avastin) to cisplatin/etoposide did not prolong overall survival in patients with extensive-disease small cell lung cancer. Study Details In the open-label trial, 204...
“There has undoubtedly been extremely rapid progress made in establishing effective therapies for anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK)-positive non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients in less than a decade,” said Fiona Blackhall, PhD, FRCP, Chair of Thoracic Oncology and medical oncologist at the...
Compared to chemotherapy, the use of first-line ceritinib (Zykadia) resulted in a statistically significant and clinically meaningful improvement in median progression-free survival, with an estimated 45% reduction in disease progression risk, as well as significant improvements in quality of...
In a single-center pooled analysis reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Wang et al found that a higher dose of radiation to the heart was associated with an increased risk of cardiac events in patients receiving high-dose radiation therapy for stage III non–small cell lung cancer...
“This drug [durvalumab] clearly shows activity in the third-line and beyond setting, and the higher the programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1) expression, the higher the response rate,” noted Michael Boyer, MBBS, PhD, Chief Clinical Officer and Conjoint Chair of Medical Oncology (Thoracic...
Durvalumab was active and led to long-lasting response in a cohort of heavily pretreated patients with epidermal growth factor receptor/anaplastic lymphoma kinase (EGFR/ALK) wild-type locally advanced and metastatic non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), particularly among patients whose tumors...
In a study reported in the Journal of Oncology Practice, Gray et al found that many medical oncologists did not use genomic testing endorsed by guidelines in place in 2012 and 2013 in patients with non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and colorectal cancer. The study involved a survey of U.S....
On February 1, 2017, the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC) issued the following statement: “According to its own public reports, in 2016 Phillip Morris manufactured 800 billion cigarettes. Thus, [IASLC] views with some skepticism Philip Morris’ recent...
In a phase III trial (ASCEND-4) reported in The Lancet, Soria et al found that ceritinib (Zykadia) improved progression-free survival vs platinum-based chemotherapy in first-line treatment of advanced ALK-rearranged non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Ceritinib is a next-generation selective...
Treatment with the multikinase inhibitor cabozantinib (Cabometyx) alone or with erlotinib (Tarceva) improved progression-free survival vs erlotinib alone in second- or third-line treatment of advanced nonsquamous epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) wild-type non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC),...