Heather Wakelee, MD

Heather Wakelee, MD, a professor of medicine at Stanford University Medical Center, discusses how physicians are treating patients with advanced lung cancer using targeted therapies, such as EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) in patients harboring an

mutations are targetable with EGFR TKIs, says Wakelee. Based on data from the&nbsp;

phase III FLAURA trial (NCT02296125), osimertinib

(Tagrisso) may be a better EGFR TKI option to start with because of the longer duration of response and improved overall survival compared with other EGFR TKIs.

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-mutant lung cancers, Wakelee believes that osimertinib is a better treatment as it is more tolerated in patients. However, she warns that physicians should be mindful of potential cardiac and other toxicities.

story set the paradigm, leading to research in other driver mutations, such as&nbsp;

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Videos

Heather Wakelee, MD, discusses how physicians are treating patients with advanced lung cancer using targeted therapies, such as EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitors in patients harboring an&nbsp;EGFR&nbsp;mutation.

Treating Patients With EGFR-Mutant Lung Cancer With Targeted Therapies

Heather Wakelee, MD, associate professor of medicine at Stanford University Medical Center, discusses a recent trial looking at atezolizumab for NSCLC treatment.

An Overview of the BIRCH Trial Investigating Atezolizumab in NSCLC

Heather Wakelee, MD, associate professor of Medicine (Oncology), Stanford University Medical Center, discusses the evolving role of bevacizumab (Avastin) in the treatment of patients with non&ndash;small cell lung cancer.

The Ongoing Research on Bevacizumab in Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer

Heather Wakelee, MD, associate professor of medicine, oncology division, Stanford University, discusses the rationale for immunotherapy in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

View the entire Special Report on Immunotherapy

Articles

The Rationale for Immunotherapy in NSCLC

Heather Wakelee, MD, associate professor, Stanford University School of Medicine, discusses the need to combine agents for the treatment of lung cancer.

It is widely believed that 1 molecularly-targeted agent will not be able to cure lung cancer.

Long term responses have been observed with 1 targeted agent.

Research needs to be conducted regarding which combinations of agents will be most beneficial or curative.

Combining Targeted Agents for the Treatment of Lung Cancer

Heather Wakelee, MD, an assistant professor at the Stanford University School of Medicine and member of the Stanford Cancer Institute, discusses the results of the AVAPERL trial.

In the AVAPERL trial, patients with non-small cell lung cancer were treated with cisplatin, pemetrexed, and bevacizumab, Wakelee says. The non-progressing patients were then randomly selected to either stay on bevacizumab alone or receive pemetrexed and bevacizumab.

Wakelee says the trial showed a striking improvement of progression-free survival for the patients who received both pemetrexed and bevacizumab. In the final overall survival analysis, there was a numeric advantage to the two-drug regimen, Wakelee says, but it was not statistically significant.

Wakelee interprets the data to mean that the two-drug regimen is more active, but she questions if the increased toxicity is worth it for every patient.

In the AVAPERL trial, patients with NSCLC were treated with cisplatin, pemetrexed, and bevacizumab. The non-progressing patients were then randomly selected to stay on bevacizumab alone or receive pemetrexed and bevacizumab

The data showed an improvement of PFS for patients who received both pemetrexed and bevacizumab, but the final overall analysis was not statistically significant

While the two-drug regimen is more active, it comes with increased toxicity and its use merits an individual patient discussion

Heather Wakelee, MD, discusses the results of the AVAPERL trial.