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In a retrospective cohort analysis reported in JAMA Oncology, Atkins et al identified a volume (V, percent) of exposure of the left anterior descending (LAD) coronary artery to a radiation dose (V15 Gy ≥10%) that is an independent risk factor for major adverse cardiac events and all-cause mortality ...
Reporting on how deferred care worsened outcomes for patients with lung cancer when the COVID-19 pandemic first surged in the spring of 2020, Robert M. Van Haren, MD, MSPH, FACS, and colleagues explained that they have identified a framework that could help people with serious health conditions...
On December 18, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved osimertinib (Tagrisso) for adjuvant therapy after tumor resection in patients with non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) whose tumors have epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) exon 19 deletions or exon 21 L858R mutations, as...
In a single-institution study reported in JCO Oncology Practice, Bernardo H.L. Goulart, MD, and colleagues found that higher out-of-pocket costs for tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) were associated with reduced adherence to and increased discontinuation of TKI therapy—as well as poorer overall...
Sintilimab provided superior clinical benefit compared to docetaxel in patients with previously treated, advanced and/or metastatic squamous non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), according to phase III study findings presented by Shi et al at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO)...
As reported in The Lancet Oncology by Goldman et al, updated results from the phase III CASPIAN trial showed maintained improvement in overall survival with first-line durvalumab plus platinum/etoposide vs platinum/etoposide in patients with extensive-stage small cell lung cancer (SCLC). However,...
Patients with non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who have pleural effusion, especially those requiring pleural evacuation, experienced poorer survival when treated with immune checkpoint inhibitors, according to findings presented by Epaillard et al at the European Society for Medical Oncology...
Enrichment of the lungs with oral commensal microbes was associated with advanced-stage disease, worse prognosis, and tumor progression in patients with lung cancer, according to results from a study published in Cancer Discovery, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.1 “The...
Invited discussant of the abstract, Joel W. Neal, MD, PhD, Associate Professor of Medicine at Stanford University, called this real-world analysis novel,1 given the decreasing number of patients treated with single-agent immunotherapy. “I think we’re unlikely to have a larger prospective study [in...
A real-world study of single-agent immune checkpoint inhibitors in driver-mutated non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) has demonstrated significant variation in progression-free survival between mutation subtypes, according to data presented during the International Association for the Study of Lung...
Although early-stage, resectable disease represents the best chance for meaningful long-term survival and cure for patients with lung cancer, there are still high rates of recurrence. According to Rajwanth Veluswamy, MD, MSCR, neoadjuvant and adjuvant treatments are needed to improve surgical...
Formal discussant Thomas J. Dilling, MD, MS, of Moffitt Cancer Center, Tampa, Florida, congratulated the authors on this study. He noted that early findings from both treatment arms showed similar rates of grade 3 and higher toxicity. “However, in the [four-fraction] arm, a fatal event occurred in...
Delivering stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT also called stereotactic ablative radiotherapy) in one or four treatment sessions led to similar outcomes in patients with up to three lung metastases (ie, oligometastatic disease) in the phase II randomized SAFRON II trial. The study, conducted...
Matthijs Oudkerk, MD, Professor of Radiology at the University Medical Center Groningen, Netherlands, and Principal Investigator for Radiology of the NELSON Lung Cancer Detection Study, stressed that detecting individuals who have early-stage lung cancer with more virulent biologic behavior is...
A recent report from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) has undermined the evidentiary basis for the primary treatment of stage I non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) while rating the evidence for the benefit of screening as “high.”1 According to David F. Yankelevitz, MD, these...
In a study reported in a research letter in JAMA Oncology, Siegel et al found that never-smokers accounted for 12.5% of patients diagnosed with lung cancer in seven U.S. states during a recent 6-year period, with women accounting for a higher proportion than men. Study Details The study included...
A research brief by Carrot-Zhang et al published in Cancer Discovery investigating inherited lung cancer risk—especially in nonsmokers—in Latin America has found that independent of smoking status, variation in EGFR and KRAS mutation frequency in Latin American patients with lung cancer was...
Recently, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued regulatory decisions for agents to treat diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL), small cell lung cancer (SCLC), acute myeloid leukemia (AML), biliary tract cancer, and graft-vs-host disease. Priority Review for Loncastuximab Tesirine...
As reported in The New England Journal of Medicine by Roy S. Herbst, MD, PhD, of Yale School of Medicine, and colleagues, the phase III IMpower110 trial has shown significantly prolonged overall survival with first-line atezolizumab vs platinum-based chemotherapy in metastatic non–small cell lung...
Lung cancer continues to be the most deadly solid cancer in the world, despite the fact that survival rates have been improving over the past decade. However, Black patients have worse outcomes and shorter lifespans after being diagnosed with lung cancer. A study published in the Journal of...
Another novel oral KRAS inhibitor—adagrasib (MRTX849)—has shown promise in early clinical trials, according to investigators of the KRYSTAL-1 study who reported findings at the virtual 32nd EORTC-NCI-AACR Symposium on Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics.1,2 The conference is jointly provided...
The addition of CS1001, an anti–PD-L1 monoclonal antibody, to platinum-based chemotherapy significantly prolonged progression-free survival vs chemotherapy in treatment-naive patients with advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), according to phase III findings presented by Zhou et al at the...
In May 2020, the combination of nivolumab and ipilimumab was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for two separate indications in the first-line setting of advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). One was in metastatic NSCLC with tumors that have PD-L1 expression ≥ 1% with...
As reported in The New England Journal of Medicine by Alice T. Shaw, MD, PhD, and colleagues, an interim analysis of the phase III CROWN trial has shown that first-line lorlatinib significantly improved progression-free survival and intracranial response rate vs crizotinib in patients with advanced ...
People of color diagnosed with lung cancer face worse outcomes compared to White Americans, according to the American Lung Association’s third annual State of Lung Cancer report. The 2020 State of Lung Cancer report tracks the toll of lung cancer by state, and for the first time, this year’s report ...
A new study by Tsay et al sheds light on the role the lung microbiome may play in lung cancer pathogenesis and prognosis. According to the study’s findings, enrichment of the lungs with oral commensal microbes was associated with advanced-stage disease, worse prognosis, and tumor progression....
In a Japanese phase III trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Kenmotsu et al found that adjuvant irinotecan/cisplatin did not improve relapse-free survival vs etoposide/cisplatin in patients with completely resected, pathologic stage I–IIIA, high-grade neuroendocrine carcinoma of the...
Mary Pasquinelli, DNP, APRN, FNP-BC, of the University of Illinois Hospital and Health Science System, discusses proposed U.S. Preventive Services Task Force lung cancer screening guidelines, which show race and gender disparities, and how modifying these recommendations with a risk prediction model may improve health care.
A new study published by Stacey A. Fedewa, PhD, and colleagues in JNCI: Journal of the National Cancer Institute found that state-level lung cancer screening rates were not aligned with the national lung cancer burden. The report provides the first population-based state-level screening data for...
James L. Mulshine, MD, of Rush University Medical Center, offers an overview of the 2020 Quantitative Imaging Workshop, whose mission is to leverage the use of CT to speed early detection and improve the management of lung cancer and other thoracic diseases.
In states that have expanded Medicaid availability as part of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), mortality rates for three major types of cancer are significantly lower than in states that have not expanded their Medicaid, according to findings from a new study published by Miranda B. Lam, MD, MBA, and ...
On October 2, 2020, the combination of nivolumab (Opdivo) plus ipilimumab (Yervoy) was approved for first-line treatment of adult patients with unresectable malignant pleural mesothelioma.1-3 Supporting Efficacy Data Approval was based on findings in the open-label phase III CheckMate 743 trial...
A “blood-first” approach could soon shift the diagnostic paradigm in advanced lung cancer, replacing tissue biopsy with minimally invasive assays. According to Natasha B. Leighl, MD, MMSc, FRCPC, FASCO, there is rapidly mounting evidence that liquid biopsy serves a prognostic function in advanced...
Comparison of two techniques used in screening non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) tumor samples demonstrated that fragment analysis could detect large MET exon 14 skipping deletions that were missed by next-generation sequencing, according to findings presented at the Molecular Analysis for...
What a difference 20 years have made! In the year 2000, the results of the ECOG 1594 trial were reported at the plenary session of the ASCO Annual Meeting. The study demonstrated comparable outcomes between four different platinum-based chemotherapy regimens for the treatment of metastatic...
David Yankelevitz, MD, of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, discusses the renewed interest in applying adjuvant and neoadjuvant targeted treatments to earlier-stage lung cancer, given the promising results in more advanced disease. The challenges, he says, include identifying patient subgroups with a high likelihood for recurrence and therapeutic toxicities.
On October 27, 2020, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the FoundationOne Liquid CDx test for three new companion diagnostic indications to help match patients who may benefit from treatment with specific FDA-approved targeted therapies. The new indications are for alpelisib...
Fred R. Hirsch, MD, PhD, of The Tisch Cancer Institute at Mount Sinai, discusses lung cancer screening for aggressive early-stage lung cancer; adjuvant and neoadjuvant treatment, including the ADAURA study of EGFR-positive tumors; and how cell-free DNA analysis might be used in the future to monitor therapy.
In an article published in The Lancet Oncology, Redman et al described the conduct of and findings from the Lung Cancer Master Protocol (Lung-MAP; SWOG S1400), a completed biomarker-driven master protocol designed to address the need for improved therapies for previously treated patients with...
Daniel G. Petereit, MD, of the John T. Vucurevich Cancer Care Institute and Monument Health, discusses the Walking Forward health-care program designed for a South Dakota–based Native American population, whose members have high smoking and death rates from lung cancer as well as limited access to low-dose CT scans.
Recently, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted Priority Review to a PD-1 inhibitor for the treatment of patients with locally advanced or metastatic non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), and also granted Priority Review to a HER2-directed antibody-drug conjugate for patients with...
In a retrospective cohort study reported in JAMA Oncology, Shankar et al found improved progression-free and overall survival among patients who experienced multisystem immune-related adverse events after anti–PD-1 or anti–PD-L1 immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy for stage III/IV non–small cell...
As reported inThe New England Journal of Medicine by Jürgen Wolf, MD, of the Center for Integrated Oncology, University Hospital Cologne and University of Cologne, and colleagues, the phase II GEOMETRY mono-1 trial has shown durable responses with the selective MET inhibitor capmatinib in patients...
The European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Virtual Congress 2020 presented several abstracts with good news for patients with lung cancer. Long-term follow-up of immunotherapies showed excellent survival, a promising new ALK inhibitor improved outcomes compared with the standard of care, the...
Lorlatinib significantly improved progression-free survival compared with crizotinib in the first-line treatment of patients with advanced ALK-positive non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), according to a planned interim analysis of the phase III CROWN trial presented at the European Society for...
Recently, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted Priority Review to treatments for EGFR-mutant lung cancer and advanced renal cell carcinoma; granted Fast Track designation to agents in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) and locally advanced or metastatic solid tumors; and more....
The tumors of patients with stage I and II non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) demonstrated a generally higher tumor mutational burden and more often displayed the mutational signature associated with tobacco smoking than those of patients with more advanced disease, according to findings presented...
Comparison of two techniques used in screening non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) tumor samples demonstrated that fragment analysis could detect large MET exon 14 skipping deletions that were missed by next-generation sequencing, according to findings presented at the Molecular Analysis for...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Sarah B. Goldberg, MD, MPH, and colleagues, final results of the phase II SWOG S1403 trial show no progression-free survival benefit with afatinib plus cetuximab vs afatinib alone in the first-line treatment of EGFR-mutant advanced non–small cell...
In a retrospective cohort study reported in JAMA Oncology, Pathak et al found that tumor size alone was not associated with improved survival with adjuvant therapy vs no adjuvant chemotherapy in patients with early-stage, node-negative non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). As stated by the...