In a Dutch phase II study reported in JAMA Oncology, Theelen et al found that although use of stereotactic body radiotherapy prior to pembrolizumab increased the objective response rate vs pembrolizumab alone in metastatic non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), the difference did not meet study...
In a single-center phase II trial reported in JAMA Oncology, Bauml et al found that pembrolizumab given after locally ablative therapy appeared to be associated with improved outcomes in patients with oligometastatic non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). In the study, 45 evaluable...
Patients who experienced a disaster-level hurricance during radiotherapy for lung cancer had worse overall survival than those who completed treatment in normal circumstances, with longer disaster declarations associated with increasingly worse survival. These findings come from a...
Results from a phase IB trial expansion stage reported in The Lancet Oncology by Herbst et al showed the combination of ramucirumab plus pembrolizumab had manageable toxicity and antitumor activity in previously treated advanced gastroesophageal cancer, non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), and ...
Recently, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted Fast Track designation to a phospholipid-drug conjugate in diffuse large B-cell lymphoma; granted Orphan Drug designation to an immunotherapy for small cell lung cancer (SCLC); accepted supplemental biologics license applications (sBLAs) ...
The results of an economic modeling study to estimate the cost-effectiveness of multigene panel sequencing as compared to standard-of-care single-gene tests for patients with advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) showed that multigene panel sequencing tests are moderately...
A risk-prediction model developed using clinical and radiologic features could stratify individuals presenting with a lung nodule as having a high or low risk for lung cancer, according to a study published by Nemesure et al in Cancer Prevention Research. “While lung nodules are not...
In a retrospective study reported in the Journal of Oncology Practice, Kelly et al identified the frequency of diagnostic and postprogression biopsies, complication rates, and associated costs in patients with non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The study involved patient data from the...
Patients with cancer who took cholesterol-lowering statin medication following radiation therapy of the chest, neck, or head had significantly reduced risk of suffering a stroke—and possibly other cardiovascular complications—according to research published by Boulet et al in...
Early detection and treatment through screening with low-dose computed tomography (LDCT) has been investigated as a potential means of reducing lung cancer mortality for more than 2 decades. In 2011, a large U.S. study—the randomized National Lung Screening Trial (NLST)—reported a 20%...
On June 28, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved bevacizumab-bvzr (Zirabev), a biosimilar to bevacizumab (Avastin), for the treatment of five types of cancer: metastatic colorectal cancer; unresectable, locally advanced, recurrent, or metastatic nonsquamous non–small cell ...
In a single-center study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Ricciuti et al found better outcomes with immune checkpoint inhibitor treatment among patients with advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) receiving baseline prednisone equivalent of ≥ 10 mg daily for...
On June 17, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted accelerated approval to the anti–programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) therapy pembrolizumab (Keytruda) as monotherapy for the treatment of patients with metastatic small cell lung cancer (SCLC) with disease...
A new retrospective study led by investigators from Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute examined outcomes for patients after receiving treatment for locally advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), finding that the average radiation dose delivered to the...
Long-term follow-up of the phase I KEYNOTE-001 study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Garon et al showed that pembrolizumab monotherapy was associated with an estimated 5-year overall survival of 23.2% for treatment-naive patients and 15.5% for previously treated patients with...
Justin F. Gainor, MD, of Massachusetts General Hospital, discusses updated findings from the ARROW study in which BLU-667, a selective RET inhibitor, demonstrated clinical activity and tolerability in patients with advanced RET fusion–positive non–small cell lung cancer (Abstract 9008).
Luis G. Paz-Ares, MD, PhD, of Hospital Universitario 12 de Octubre, discusses study findings on the second-line use of lurbinectedin in patients with both resistant and sensitive small cell lung cancer (Abstract 8506).
Neoadjuvant treatment with nivolumab plus ipilimumab resulted in an overall major pathologic response rate of 33% of treated patients with early-stage, resectable non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). With these results, the combination immunotherapy met the prespecified trial...
As reported in The Lancet Oncology by West et al, the phase III IMpower130 trial found that the addition of atezolizumab to carboplatin plus nab-paclitaxel significantly improved overall and progression-free survival in first-line treatment of stage IV nonsquamous non–small cell lung cancer...
Gilberto Lopes, MD, MBA, of the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Miami, offers commentary on phase III findings from the RELAY study, which showed that erlotinib plus ramucirumab led to superior progression-free survival in previously untreated patients with EGFR...
Miriam Knoll, MD, of Hackensack University Medical Center, and Richard J. White, DO, of Allegheny Health Network, discuss improved overall survival among younger female patients with non–small cell lung cancer who have a lower comorbidity score, lower grade, private insurance, and treatment with...
Suresh S. Ramalingam, MD, of Winship Cancer Institute, Emory University, discusses findings from the ECOG-ACRIN 5508 study, which showed that single-agent bevacizumab or pemetrexed is the optimal maintenance therapy for advanced nonsquamous NSCLC (Abstract 9002).
Richard L. Schilsky, MD, of ASCO, and R. Donald Harvey, PharmD, BCOP, of Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University, discuss their study findings that expanding the clinical trial eligibility criteria for patients with advanced NSCLC would enable nearly twice as many people to be considered for...
A study that examined 10,500 health records of patients with advanced non–small cell lung cancer from ASCO’s CancerLinQ database found that the use of expanded clinical trial inclusion criteria—as proposed by ASCO and Friends of Cancer Research in 2017—would nearly double...
David J. Kwiatkowski, MD, PhD, of Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, discusses an interim analysis and biomarker data from a multicenter study showing that 19% of patients with NSCLC had a major pathologic response to preoperative treatment with atezolizumab (Abstract...
Hirotsugu Kenmotsu, MD, of Shizuoka Cancer Center, discusses the phase III JIPANG trial findings, which showed that pemetrexed plus cisplatin was not superior to vinorelbine plus cisplatin in terms of recurrence-free survival for patients with completely resected nonsquamous non–small cell lung...
Taofeek Kunle Owonikoko, MD, PhD, of Emory University, discusses the findings of his phase II study, which assessed the efficacy of combined immune checkpoint inhibitors with or without radiation in relapsed small cell lung cancer (Abstract 8515).
Edward B. Garon, MD, of the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles, discusses long-term survival data on patients with advanced non–small cell lung cancer treated with pembrolizumab and those with PD-L1 expressed in at least half of their tumor cells (Abstract...
Five-year data from the phase Ib KEYNOTE-001 trial showed that treatment with pembrolizumab was safe and effective and substantially increased overall survival in patients with advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Specifically, 23.2% of people who had not previously been treated with...
New research published by Bagley et al in JNCCN—Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network used a large real-world data set to demonstrate a modest but consistent survival benefit associated with adding bevacizumab to carboplatin/pemetrexed in advanced nonsquamous non–small...
On May 23, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the NovoTTF-100L System in combination with pemetrexed plus platinum-based chemotherapy for the first-line treatment of unresectable locally advanced or metastatic malignant pleural mesothelioma. NovoTTF-100L is a noninvasive,...
Results from a study published by Cykert et al in The Journal of the National Medical Association show that a pragmatic system-based intervention within cancer treatment centers can nearly eliminate existing disparities in treatment and outcomes for black patients with early-stage...
In long-term follow-up of a phase II study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Gomez et al confirmed superior outcomes with local consolidative therapy vs maintenance therapy or observation in patients with oligometastatic non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). In the open-label,...
Elderly survivors of breast cancer, lung cancer, and melanoma face risk of brain metastasis later in life, and may require extra surveillance in the years following initial cancer treatment, according to results of a study published by Ascha et al in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers, &...
As reported in JAMA, Singal et al used a clinicogenomic database in routine clinical practice to identify associations between treatment outcomes and patient characteristics or tumor genomic profiles in the setting of non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The study cohort of 4,064 patients...
Patients with mesothelioma are twice as likely to survive for 2 years or longer if they are treated with a high dose of radiation to the affected side of the trunk, according to research presented by Minatel et al at ESTRO 38, the annual congress of the European Society for Radiotherapy...
A study examining trends in patient-reported physician-patient discussions about lung cancer screening and the association of these discussions with smokers’ attempts to quit and intent to quit has found that discussions about screening have declined since 2012. Moreover, they were not...
In an interim analysis of the phase III NEJ026 trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Saito et al found that the addition of bevacizumab to erlotinib improved progression-free survival in patients with EGFR-positive, nonsquamous non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). In the open-label...
In a study reported in JAMA Oncology, Mak et al found that a crowd innovation contest produced automated artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms “that replicated the skills of a highly trained physician” in segmenting lung tumors for radiotherapy targeting. The investigators also noted...
A study by Xu et al in Clinical Cancer Research evaluating deep-learning networks that analyze time-series computed tomography (CT) images of patients with locally advanced NSCLC has found these networks can integrate imaging scans at multiple time points to improve clinical outcome...
As reported in The Lancet by Mok et al, the KEYNOTE-042 trial has shown an improvement in overall survival with pembrolizumab vs standard chemotherapy in previously untreated patients with locally advanced or metastatic non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) without a sensitizing EGFR mutation or ...
In the phase I/II NRG Oncology/RTOG 0813 study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Bezjak et al found that five-fraction stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) was associated with relatively low rates of serious treatment-related toxicity and good outcomes in patients with centrally...
In a phase III trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Bayman et al found that prophylactic radiotherapy to the chest wall after diagnostic or therapeutic procedures did not reduce the risk of chest wall metastases in patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma. In the open-label,...
Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved pembrolizumab (Keytruda) for the first-line treatment of patients with stage III non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who are not candidates for surgical resection or definitive chemoradiation, or those with metastatic NSCLC....
Maintenance immunotherapy did not improve survival in patients with extensive-stage small cell lung cancer (SCLC), according to late-breaking results from the CheckMate 451 study presented today by Owonikoko et al at the European Lung Cancer Congress 2019 (Abstract LBA1_PR). Around 60% to 70% of...
Two studies reported at the European Lung Cancer Congress (ELCC) 2019 provided new insights on the efficacy and safety of immunotherapy in elderly patients with advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Although around half of all people newly diagnosed with NSCLC are elderly (Pallis ...
Two nonprofit organizations serving the lung cancer community—the Bonnie J. Addario Lung Cancer Foundation (ALCF) and Lung Cancer Alliance (LCA)—have announced they are joining forces as the GO2 Foundation for Lung Cancer. With more than 3 decades of combined expertise, a...
In a study reported in JAMA Oncology, Mor et al found that veterans with advanced lung cancer treated in Veterans Affairs (VA) Medical Centers with high hospice use were more likely to receive concurrent cancer care but less likely to receive aggressive care. Moreover, veterans treated at...
As reported in JAMA Oncology by Sun et al, a long-term update of the phase III NRG Oncology/RTOG 0214 trial has shown that prophylactic cranial irradiation was associated with a reduced incidence of brain metastases and improved disease-free survival—but not overall survival—compared...
The results of an analysis of pooled data from the phase Ib KEYNOTE-028 trial and the phase II KEYNOTE-158 study of the anti–programmed cell death protein 1 monoclonal antibody pembrolizumab in the treatment of advanced small cell lung cancer has found that the therapy provided antitumor...