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In a phase III IMPRESS trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Soria et al found no progression-free survival benefit of adding gefitinib (Iressa) to platinum-based doublet chemotherapy in patients with advanced EGFR-mutant non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who had acquired resistance to...
In the phase III LUX-Lung 8 trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Soria et al found that the irreversible ErbB-family inhibitor afatinib (Gilotrif) significantly improved progression-free and overall survival vs the EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitor erlotinib as second-line treatment in patients with ...
Tobacco cessation provided a significant survival benefit for patients with lung cancer who quit smoking shortly before or after diagnosis, despite the severity of the disease. Results of this Roswell Park Cancer Institute–led study were published by Dobson Amato et al in the Journal of...
In patients with early-stage non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) treated with stereotactic body radiotherapy, outcomes were similar between patients with biopsy-proven lesions and those with radiographically diagnosed disease, according to a study by Fischer-Valuck et al in Tumori Journal....
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved gefitinib (Iressa) for the treatment of patients with metastatic non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) whose tumors have epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) exon 19 deletions or exon 21 (L858R) substitution mutations as detected by an...
In a National Cancer Data Base analysis reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Wang et al found that postoperative radiation therapy has been declining in use in recent years but is associated with improved overall survival in patients with incompletely resected stage II or III...
A large international prospective study investigating the safety and effectiveness of using annual low-dose computed tomography (CT) as a screening tool to monitor nonsolid lung nodules has found that CT was accurate in identifying nodules that were likely to become cancerous. The study also found...
In a pooled analysis of the LUX-Lung 2, 3, and 6 trials reported in The Lancet Oncology, Yang et al found that the activity of afatinib (Gilotrif) differed according to uncommon EGFR mutations in advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Most patients with EGFR-mutant NSCLC have deletion...
In the phase III SQUIRE trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Thatcher et al found that the addition of the second-generation epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) antibody necitumumab to first-line gemcitabine-cisplatin improved overall survival among patients with stage IV squamous...
In a study reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Silvestri et al of the AEGIS study team found that use of a bronchial airway gene-expression classifier improved the diagnostic performance of bronchoscopy in patients being evaluated for suspected lung cancer. Study Details The study...
In a phase III BEYOND trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Zhou et al found that the addition of bevacizumab to carboplatin-paclitaxel improved progression-free and overall survival in Chinese patients with locally advanced, metastatic, or recurrent advanced nonsquamous...
A collaborative team of researchers led by Alex A. Adjei, MD, PhD, FACP, of Roswell Park Cancer Institute, shared results from the first clinical study of the anticancer effects of the novel agent entolimod on May 30 at the 2015 ASCO Annual Meeting in Chicago (Abstract 3063). Their findings confirm ...
The oral investigational anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) inhibitor alectinib shrank tumors in almost half of patients with advanced ALK-positive non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) whose disease had progressed following crizotinib (Xalkori) treatment. Positive results from two clinical...
In a phase III head-to-head trial comparing the safety and efficacy of two EGFR-directed treatments, afatinib (Gilotrif) treatment resulted in a significant improvement in overall survival over erlotinib (Tarceva) in patients with previously treated advanced squamous cell carcinoma of the lung....
Superior overall survival was experienced by patients receiving the anti–PD-1 antibody nivolumab (Opdivo) in a randomized phase III study of patients with nonsquamous non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) whose disease progressed after a platinum-based doublet chemotherapy. Study...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has granted Fast Track designation to Immunomedics’ lead antibody-drug conjugate sacituzumab govitecan (IMMU-132) for the treatment of patients with relapsed/refractory metastatic non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who have failed two prior lines of ...
In an analysis reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Tsao et al found that classification by histologic subtype for invasive lung adenocarcinoma was not predictive of overall survival benefit of adjuvant therapy in patients undergoing complete resection but did appear to predict benefit of...
Patients with operable stage I non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) could achieve better overall survival rates if treated with stereotactic ablative radiotherapy rather than the invasive surgery, the current standard of care, according to research from a phase III randomized international...
An early-phase study testing the anti–PD-L1 agent MPDL3280A in combination with standard chemotherapy in the treatment of advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) has provided promising early results, prompting multiple phase III studies in lung cancer. The findings are being...
In a meta-analysis reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Lee et al found that increased progression-free survival benefit of EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitor treatment vs chemotherapy was exhibited in patients with exon 19 deletion, never-smokers, and women. Study Details The meta-analysis...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Araujo et al used targeted massively parallel sequencing to produce an in-depth molecular profile of non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in African Americans. Comparison with findings in patients of European/white ancestry with NSCLC...
In a phase I cohort expansion trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Gettinger et al found that monotherapy with the anti–programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) checkpoint inhibitor antibody nivolumab (Opdivo) produced durable responses and promising survival rates in patients...
ASCO issued an endorsement of the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) evidence-based guideline on external-beam radiotherapy for patients with locally advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The ASCO endorsement was published by Bezjak et al in the Journal of Clinical...
A large population-based British study of newly diagnosed patients with lung cancer has found that those who had prolonged use of statins, especially simvastatin, had a 19% reduction in lung cancer deaths. Among all patients, those who used statins in the year before their lung cancer diagnosis had ...
In a phase I/II study reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Sequist et al found that rociletinib—an EGFR inhibitor active in the presence and absence of the EGFR T790M mutation known to mediate resistance to available EGFR inhibitors—produced a high response rate in patients...
A clinical trial of the EGFR inhibitor AZD9291 in patients with advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who had disease progression after previous treatment with EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitors has found that the drug was highly active—achieving a 95% disease control rate—in...
New evidence suggests that patients with lung cancer who undergo surgery are at higher risk of developing venous thromboembolism, including deep-vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism, than previously thought, with elevated risks of complications or death. When thromboemboli occur, they may be...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted Breakthrough Therapy designation to crizotinib (Xalkori) for the potential treatment of patients with ROS1-positive non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Crizotinib currently is approved in the United States for the treatment of patients...
Mutations of the KRAS gene are commonly known to lead to cancer. However, deeper understanding of exactly how they do this continues to be explored by cancer researchers. Scientists at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center have gained further insight about the processes behind KRAS...
In a study reported in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Ohri et al found that higher pretreatment metabolic tumor volume on 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (FDG-PET) was associated with poorer overall survival and an increased risk of locoregional failure in...
The immunotherapy pembrolizumab (Keytruda) was found to be safe and yielded durable responses in patients with advanced, non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Those with high levels of the protein PD-L1 in their tumors had better clinical outcomes, according to phase I KEYNOTE-001 clinical...
A subset of lung cancer patients can derive important clinical benefits from drugs that are more commonly used to treat melanoma, the authors of a new academic clinical trial in Europe have reported at the European Lung Cancer Conference (ELCC) in Geneva (Abstract 21PD_PR). Oliver Gautschi, MD, a...
Almost one in four patients (24%) with advanced lung cancer in Europe, Asia, and the United States are not receiving EGFR test results before being started on treatment, researchers reported at the European Lung Cancer Conference (ELCC) in Geneva (Abstract LBA2_PR). This lack of test results may...
Cancer DNA circulating in the bloodstream of lung cancer patients can provide doctors with vital mutation information that can help optimize treatment when tumor tissue is not available, an international group of researchers has reported at the European Lung Cancer Conference (ELCC) in Geneva...
According to a recent study by Perl et al published in the Journal of Oncology Practice, the administration of chemotherapy near death is recognized by patients, their families, and oncologists as “aggressive and poor-quality care.” Despite this, rates of end-of-life chemotherapy have...
Numerous studies have documented racial differences in deaths from cancer among non-Hispanic whites and African Americans, but little has been known about survival outcomes for Asian Americans who have been diagnosed with cancer. In a new study published in the Journal of the National Cancer...
In a study reported in a research letter in JAMA, Wang et al found that the proportion of patients with lung cancer who would have met U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) criteria for low-dose computed tomography (CT) lung screening decreased significantly between the periods of 1984 to...
In a retrospective study in the European EUROS1 cohort reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Mazières found that crizotinib (Xalkori) treatment was associated with an 80% response rate in patients with stage IV lung adenocarcinoma with ROS1 rearrangement. Study Details The study...
In the phase II CheckMate 063 study reported in The Lancet Oncology, Rizvi et al found that the PD-1 inhibitor nivolumab (Opdivo) produced durable responses in some patients with advanced, refractory squamous non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who had received at least two prior treatments....
In a basket trial (CUSTOM) reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Lopez-Chavez et al performed molecular profiling of tumors in patients with advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), small cell lung cancer, or thymic malignancies and assigned those in any of five actionable...
In the randomized phase II Cancer and Leukemia Group B (CALGB) 30504/Alliance trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Ready et al found that sunitinib (Sutent) vs placebo maintenance following chemotherapy improved progression-free survival in patients with previously untreated...
Patients treated with definitive concurrent chemotherapy and radiation therapy for stage III non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) have longer overall survival when treated by highly experienced facilities, whether or not they are academic or community cancer centers. Researchers from the Yale...
Using a novel polymerase chain reaction assay “to efficiently assess” epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutations in circulating free DNA (cfDNA) from blood samples of patients with advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), the Spanish Lung Cancer Group has “shown...
In the phase III INSPIRE trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Paz-Ares et al found that the addition of the anti-EGFR IgG1 monoclonal antibody necitumumab to first-line pemetrexed (Alimta)-cisplatin did not improve overall survival in patients with previously untreated stage IV nonsquamous...
In a phase II study reported in The Lancet Oncology, Melichar et al found that the oral aurora kinase A inhibitor alisertib was active in solid tumors, particularly breast cancer and small cell lung cancer. Aurora kinases play central roles in mitosis. Inhibition of aurora kinase A, which is...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today approved the PD-1 inhibitor nivolumab (Opdivo) for the treatment of patients with metastatic squamous non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who have progressed on or after platinum-based chemotherapy. Nivolumab is a monoclonal antibody that binds ...
A retrospective study by Pekar-Zlotin et al investigating fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) and immunohistochemistry (IHC) for detecting EML4-ALK rearrangement in patients with lung cancer has found that FISH may miss a significant number of patients who tested positive with...
Certain rare epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutations are associated with tobacco smoking, worse prognosis, and poor response to EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitor therapy, compared with more common, classic EGFR mutations. However, as not all rare mutations are the same, testing and therapy...
Analysis of data from 102,929 patients with stage IV lung cancer found that “prior cancer does not convey an adverse effect on clinical outcomes, regardless of prior cancer stage, type, or timing.” Based on these findings, investigators from the Harold C. Simmons Cancer Center,...
In a U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) analysis of randomized trials in advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Blumenthal et al found a strong correlation between response rate and progression-free survival at the trial level and a...