Despite decades of clinical research establishing chemotherapy with thoracic radiation as the standard of care for the initial management of nonmetastatic small cell lung cancer (SCLC), a large percentage of U.S. patients do not receive these treatments, and in turn have lower overall survival,...
On December 18, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) accepted a supplemental New Drug Application (sNDA) for the use of osimertinib (Tagrisso)—a third-generation, irreversible epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) tyrosine kinase inhibitor with clinical activity against central...
The Lung Cancer Awareness Month Coalition (LCAMC), a group of more than 20 research and advocacy organizations from around the world focused on thoracic cancers, announced the launch of the 2017 Lung Cancer Awareness Month in early November with a panel event at the National Press Club in...
Osimertinib (Tagrisso) improves progression-free survival compared to standard first-line therapy in Asian patients with EGFR-mutated non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), according to the Asian subset analysis of the FLAURA trial presented at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO)...
In a study presented at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Asia 2017 Congress (Abstract 35P_PR), researchers analyzed the presence of mutations in the cerebrospinal fluid of patients with lung cancer and brain metastases. Tumor tissue from brain metastasis is difficult to obtain,...
A subanalysis of the phase III ALEX study has shown that alectinib (Alecensa) is more effective than the standard of care, crizotinib, in Asian patients with anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK)-positive non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), researchers reported at the European Society for Medical...
Elevated levels of chronic stress hormones, such as those produced by psychological distress, may promote resistance to drugs commonly used to treat lung cancer patients with EGFR mutations, according to new research from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. Retrospective analysis of...
On November 6, 2017, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted regular approval to alectinib (Alecensa) for treatment of patients with anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK)-positive metastatic non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), as detected by an FDA-approved test. In December 2015,...
Low-dose computed tomography (CT) screening for lung cancer has become standard practice, mostly due to the results of the National Lung Screening Trial. Related evidence continues to evolve, informing the benefits and risks of low-dose CT in clinical practice. Mazzone et al presented new ...
Two new studies from CHEST 2017, held recently in Toronto, reveal disparities in lung cancer screening and care that may impact detection as well as mortality and survival rates in the disease. Risk Status and Screening The first study from Lahey Hospital and Medical Center in Burlington,...
In a feasibility trial of people with advanced lung cancer receiving radiation therapy and their caregivers, yoga was beneficial to both parties. These findings will be presented by Milbury et al at the upcoming 2017 Palliative and Supportive Care in Oncology Symposium in San Diego (Abstract 125). ...
On October 17, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has accepted a supplemental Biologics License Application (sBLA) for durvalumab (Imfinzi) for the treatment of patients with locally advanced (stage III) unresectable non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) whose disease has not progressed ...
Physical exercise and psychosocial interventions in patients with advanced-stage lung cancer improved functional capacity, which may be linked to quality-of-life benefits. Morten Quist, PT, PhD, MSc, of the University of Copenhagen, presented these findings at the International Association for the...
Community-based interventions implemented in minority community sites resulted in changes in participants’ knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs about cancer, as well as perceived benefits and self-efficacy measures regarding lung cancer screening. Lovoria Williams, PhD, APRN-BC, FAANP, of...
As non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) survival rates have increased over time, new research sheds light on how NSCLC outcomes are significantly influenced by the type of treatment facility where patients undergo care. Bhagirathbhai Dholaria, MD, of the Moffitt Cancer Center, presented these...
A targeted therapy studied at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center has produced high response rates among patients with metastatic non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) that carries a highly treatment-resistant mutation. Preliminary results were presented at the International...
Updated overall survival findings from the phase III KEYNOTE-024 trial evaluating pembrolizumab (Keytruda) as a first-line monotherapy in patients with non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) whose tumors express high levels of programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1) were presented at the...
The International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC) released its Atlas of EGFR Testing in Lung Cancer at the IASLC 18th World Conference on Lung Cancer (WCLC) in Yokohama, Japan. The EGFR Atlas provides health-care professionals with information on EGFR testing processes and...
New research shows that treating stage II and III non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) node-positive resected patients with customized chemotherapy based on their specific BRCA1 expression levels, as opposed to providing the standard treatment, did not increase overall survival rates among...
Small cell lung cancer (SCLC) biopsy specimens were found to be reliable material for evaluating DLL3 expression, and high levels of DLL3 in SCLC are correlated with poor survival trends. Researchers from Guangdong General Hospital and Guangdong Academy of Medical Sciences in China presented...
New subgroup analysis from the phase III REVEL trial of ramucirumab (Cyramza) in advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) was presented at the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC) 18th World Conference on Lung Cancer in Yokohama, Japan. Specifically, these...
The findings of a recent study confirm the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC)’s proposed criteria for uncertain resection margin status, R(un), in residual tumor (R) classification. John Edwards, PhD, MBChB, of the University of Sheffield in the United Kingdom,...
A study that integrated robust smoking cessation programs into an organized low-dose computed tomography (CT) lung cancer screening program found that the inclusion of both interventions has the potential to decrease mortality rates—while being relatively cost-effective. William Evans,...
New research found race and specific socioeconomic factors to have a significant influence on disparities in the survival rates of non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients. Yanyan Lou, MD, PhD, of the Mayo Clinic, presented these findings at the International Association for the Study of...
At the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC) 18th World Conference on Lung Cancer in Yokohama, Japan, Pfizer announced full results from the phase II clinical trial of the investigational, next-generation tyrosine kinase inhibitor lorlatinib. The agent exhibited clinically...
At the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC) 18th World Conference on Lung Cancer in Yokohama, Japan, Bristol-Myers Squibb announced data evaluating nivolumab (Opdivo) and nivolumab plus ipilimumab (Yervoy) in previously treated small cell lung cancer (SCLC) patients whose...
Data from the phase II ALTA clinical trial evaluating brigatinib (Alunbrig) in patients with locally advanced or metastatic anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK)-positive non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who have disease progression on crizotinib were presented at the International...
Early specialist palliative care for patients that were recently diagnosed with malignant pleural mesothelioma does not impact quality-of-life measures, according to research presented by Fraser Brims, MBcHB, MRCP, MD, FRACP, of Curtin University in Australia, at the International Association...
The final efficacy and safety data obtained from a phase I/II trial combining lurbinectedin (PM1183) with doxorubicin in relapsed small cell lung cancer were presented during a Research Perspectives oral session at the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC) 18th World...
On October 10, Eli Lilly and Company announced that its phase III JUNIPER study evaluating abemaciclib (Verzenio), a cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK) 4 and CDK6 inhibitor, as monotherapy in KRAS-mutated, advanced non–small lung cancer (NSCLC) did not meet its primary endpoint of overall...
On October 9, AstraZeneca announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted Breakthrough Therapy designation for osimertinib (Tagrisso) for the first-line treatment of patients with metastatic epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutation–positive non–small cell lung ...
Shrinivas Rathod, MD, of the University of Manitoba, discusses phase III study results on optimization of treatment of advanced non–small cell lung cancer using radiation therapy and chemotherapy (Abstract 223).
Maria Werner-Wasik, MD, of Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, summarizes a session on NSCLC that included discussion of a quality-of-life trial on optimizing treatment; chemotherapy and radiotherapy in advanced disease; a comparison of standard- vs high-dose conformal chemoradiotherapy; and...
Jeffrey D. Bradley, MD, of Washington University School of Medicine, discusses long-term phase III findings on standard-dose vs high-dose conformal chemoradiation therapy with or without cetuximab for stage III non–small cell lung cancer (Abstract 227).
Long-term results of a phase III clinical trial indicate that survival rates for patients receiving chemoradiation for unresectable, locally advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) may be more than twice as high as previous estimates. At 5 years following treatment with a standard dose of ...
For patients with limited metastatic non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), adding radiation therapy before maintenance chemotherapy may curb disease progression when compared to maintenance chemotherapy alone, according to a randomized phase II clinical trial reported by Iyengar et al. at the...
A new study demonstrates that a blood test to detect cancer may predict treatment outcomes for patients with localized non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and afford physicians additional lead time to personalize treatment for recurrent disease. Patients in the study with detectable levels of...
A new tool to identify patients who would benefit from early palliative care was presented at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) 2017 Congress in Madrid (Abstract LBA54_PR). The so-called “Triggers” tool, developed by the London Cancer Alliance to help clinicians in the...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today approved bevacizumab-awwb (Mvasi) as a biosimilar to bevacizumab (Avastin) for the treatment of multiple types of cancer. Bevacizumab-awwb is the first biosimilar approved in the U.S. for the treatment of cancer. “Bringing new biosimilars to...
Durvalumab improves progression-free survival in patients with locally advanced, unresectable stage III lung cancer, according to late-breaking results from the phase III PACIFIC trial presented at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) 2017 Congress in Madrid (Abstract LBA1_PR) and...
Luis G. Paz-Ares, MD, PhD, of Hospital Universitario 12 De Octubre, discusses phase III study findings on durvalumab after chemoradiation therapy in patients with stage III, locally advanced, unresectable non–small cell lung cancer (Abstract LBA1).
Michèle Beau-Faller, MD, PhD, of the Hôpital de Hautepierre & Institut Régional du Cancer, discusses study results on ultrasensitive detection of EGFR T790M mutation by droplet digital PCR in TKI naïve non–small cell lung cancer harboring EGFR mutation (Abstract 85PD).
Data from two separate phase III studies presented at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) 2017 Congress in Madrid show the particular central nervous system (CNS) activity of alectinib (Alecensa) in patients with advanced non–small cell lung cancer involving a mutation of the...
Luis G. Paz-Ares, MD, PhD, of Hospital Universitario 12 De Octubre, discusses phase III study findings on durvalumab after chemoradiation therapy in patients with stage III, locally advanced, unresectable non–small cell lung cancer (Abstract LBA1).
The optimal follow-up protocol for patients with completely resected non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) remains elusive after results of the IFCT-0302 trial, presented at the 2017 European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress in Madrid, did not show a difference in overall survival...
An update of the ASCO clinical practice guideline on the systemic treatment of patients with stage IV non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) clarifies the role of immunotherapy in this setting. The update, published by Hanna et al in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, also provides new...
With the advent of molecular targeted therapies and immunotherapy, eligibility criteria have increased in number and complexity for lung cancer clinical trials, according to an analysis published by Garcia et al in the Journal of Thoracic Oncology. Despite calls to streamline cancer clinical trial...
Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) accepted Genentech’s supplemental New Drug Application (sNDA) and granted Priority Review for alectinib (Alecensa) as a first-line treatment for people with anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK)-positive, locally advanced, or metastatic...
On July 27, it was announced that the phase III FLAURA trial showed a statistically significant and clinically meaningful progression-free survival benefit with osimertinib (Tagrisso) compared to current first-line standard-of-care treatment (erlotinib [Tarceva] or gefitinib [Iressa]) in previously ...
On July 31, AstraZeneca and MedImmune (AstraZeneca’s global biologics research and development arm) announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted Breakthrough Therapy designation for durvalumab (Imfinzi) for the treatment of patients with locally advanced,...