Maxwell Oluwole Akanbi, MD, PhD, on Lung Cancer: The Effect of Screening on the Incidence of Advanced Disease
2022 ASCO Annual Meeting
Maxwell Oluwole Akanbi, MD, PhD, of McLaren Regional Medical Center, discusses the study he conducted, using the SEER database, to evaluate the impact of lung cancer screening recommendations on low-dose CT scanning. The data suggest that guidelines from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force led to a more rapid decline in the incidence of advanced disease in the United States, especially among minority populations (Abstract 10506).
Transcript
Disclaimer: This video transcript has not been proofread or edited and may contain errors.
Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer mortality in the US, and this is because most patients with lung cancer are diagnosed at advanced stages of the disease. Trying to make patients present earlier has been an elusive challenge, until in 2011, when results of the National Lung Cancer Trial were reported. This study showed that low-dose CT scan could improve survival in patients with lung cancer by making earlier diagnosis. Although this has been shown in clinical trials, the government has ruled out lung cancer screening in the general population without also actually knowing whether it is efficacious in the general population.
Our study was to evaluate the effectiveness of lung cancer screening in the US general population. You will use the SEER database, we analyzed data of patient diagnosed with lung cancer from 2004 to 2018. Our goal was to see if the incidence of advanced lung cancer reduced over this time. Our results showed that incidence of advanced lung cancer actually decreased in the US population following the rollout of lung cancer screening. This was particularly significant in minority populations. This is encouraging because there have been concerns that lung cancer screening may not be very effective in this population because they had limited access to screening facilities.
So, while this is encouraging, the work is not yet done. Our end goal is to make sure there's reduction in lung cancer mortality. There are still barriers between screening and mortality, so the next stage of our study will be to see whether this reduction in incidence of advanced lung cancer actually translate to reduction in lung cancer mortality.
The ASCO Post Staff
Tara B. Sanft, MD, of Yale University, discusses the results of the LEANer study (Lifestyle, Exercise, and Nutrition Early After Diagnosis) in women with breast cancer. It showed that patients with newly diagnosed disease who were just starting chemotherapy could improve physical activity and diet quality. While both groups had high rates of treatment completion, women in the intervention who exercised at or above the recommended levels did better in terms of treatment completion, with fewer dose reductions and delays (Abstract 12007).
The ASCO Post Staff
Akihiro Ohba, MD, of Japan’s National Cancer Center Hospital, discusses phase II data from the HERB trial on fam-trastuzumab deruxtecan-nxki, which showed activity in patients with HER2-expressing unresectable or recurrent biliary tract cancer (Abstract 4006).
The ASCO Post Staff
Benoit You, MD, PhD, of Lyon University hospital (HCL, France) and GINECO group (France), discusses findings from the GOG-0218 trial of patients with ovarian cancer, which appears to confirm earlier data on the link between poor tumor chemosensitivity and benefit from concurrent plus maintenance bevacizumab. In Dr. You’s validation study, patients who derived the most progression-free and overall survival benefit from bevacizumab were those with high-risk disease (stage IV or incompletely resected stage III) associated with an unfavorable KELIM score (CA-125 kinetic elimination rate constant, calculable online) (Abstract 5553).
The ASCO Post Staff
Stephanie Walker, a former nurse and current activist with the Metastatic Breast Cancer Alliance, discusses findings from the BECOME project (Black Experience of Clinical Trials and Opportunities for Meaningful Engagement). They show that, even though Black patients comprise between 4% and 6% of all clinical trial participants, Black women with metastatic breast cancer are willing to consider taking part if steps were taken to increase their awareness, build trust through clear communication with health-care providers, involve people of shared racial/ethnic identity and health experience, and help patients find and access trials (Abstract 1014).
The ASCO Post Staff
Georgina V. Long, MD, PhD, of the Melanoma Institute Australia, The University of Sydney, discusses phase III findings from the KEYNOTE-716 study. The trial showed that compared with placebo, adjuvant pembrolizumab significantly improved distant metastasis–free survival in patients with resected stage IIB and IIC melanoma. The findings also suggest a continued reduction in the risk of recurrence and a favorable benefit-risk profile (Abstract LBA9500).
