Chad G. Rusthoven, MD, on SCLC: Brain MRI Surveillance With or Without Prophylactic Cranial Irradiation
IASLC WCLC 2026
Chad G. Rusthoven, MD, of the University of Colorado School of Medicine, presents results from the international phase III SWOG S1827 MAVERICK trial, which showed that brain MRI surveillance alone improved cognitive failure–free survival compared with MRI surveillance plus prophylactic cranial irradiation in patients with small cell lung cancer (SCLC). The findings support MRI surveillance alone as the standard of care for patients with SCLC (Abstract PL02.01).
Roy S. Herbst, MD, PhD, of Dartmouth Cancer Center, discusses 8-year overall survival data from the landmark ADAURA trial, which showed the sustained long-term benefit of adjuvant therapy with osimertinib for patients with completely resected, EGFR-mutated stage IB–IIIA non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) (Abstract PL03.01).
Anne Chiang, MD, PhD, of Yale University School of Medicine, provides commentary on two China-based phase III studies presented in Presidential Symposium 1: TAISHAN-02, which looked at the antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) tambotatug pelitecan vs topotecan among patients with relapsed small cell lung cancer (SCLC), and ARTEMIS-008, which looked at another ADC, risvutatug rezetecan, among patients with SCLC whose disease progressed on and after platinum-based chemotherapy. Both agents target B7-H3 and showed promising efficacy and safety in this setting (Abstracts PL02.03 and PL02.04).
Chul Kim, MD, of Georgetown Cancer Institute, reviews findings from the phase III PAPILLON study, which found that first-line amivantamab plus carboplatin/pemetrexed was associated with numerically longer overall survival compared with chemotherapy alone in patients with previously untreated advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with EGFR exon 20 insertion mutations (Abstract PL03.03).
Alexander Drilon, MD, of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, presents efficacy and safety data from a phase II cohort of the ARROS-1 trial, which included patients with locally advanced or metastatic ROS1-positive non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who were naive to tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) therapy (Abstract PL03.06).
Alexander I. Spira MD, PhD, FACP, FASCO, of Virginia Cancer Specialists and US Oncology, discusses findings from a global phase I study of izalontamab brenitecan (BL-B01D1), an antibody-drug conjugate comprising an EGFR x HER3 bispecific antibody conjugated to a novel topoisomerase 1 inhibitor payload via a stable tetrapeptide-based cleavable linker. In a randomized dose-expansion cohort, the agent demonstrated promising efficacy with a tolerable safety profile in patients with previously treated EGFR-mutated non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) (Abstract OA10.01).
