Biomarker-Driven Lung Cancer

Lung Cancer

The FDA has approved a 4-week dosing schedule for the PD-1 inhibitor nivolumab (Opdivo) across several indications.

NonDriver Metastatic Lung Large Cell Carcinoma

Marina C. Garassino, MD, medical consultant in the Medical Oncology Division, Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori, Milan, Italy, discusses current advancements with immunotherapy as first- and second-line treatments for patients with lung cancer.

Joshua Bauml, MD, an assistant professor at Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, discusses the possibilities with using liquid biopsies in patients with lung cancer.

Updates from the KEYNOTE-189 and IMpower150 trials demonstrated the significant impact of adding immunotherapy to treatment regimens for patients with non–small cell lung cancer.

Hossein Borghaei, DO, MS, chief of the Division of Thoracic Medical Oncology at Fox Chase Cancer Center, discusses biomarkers that may help identify patients with lung cancer who can benefit from immunotherapy agents. Since the introduction of these agents, PD-L1 has been used as a potential biomarker for selecting patients that may benefit from treatment. As PD-L1 is not completely reliable, there is interest in developing additional biomarkers.

The primary endpoint of improving overall survival was not met in the phase III JAVELIN Lung 200 Trial of avelumab in patients with non–small cell lung cancer, according to Merck KGaA and Pfizer, the co-developers of avelumab.

Jean-Charles Soria, MD, PhD, will be honored with the Targeted Anticancer Therapies 2018 Honorary Award for cancer drug development. Soria has played a large part in cancer drug development across molecular targeted agents, precision medicine, and immunotherapy for the last 15 years.

Even as immunotherapy grows more popular as a treatment for solid tumors, physicians are racing to identify patients with the molecular subtypes, rather than the disease, who will derive the most benefit.

Based on results from the phase III PACIFIC trial, durvalumab has been granted approval by the FDA for the treatment of patients with locally advanced, unresectable stage III non–small cell lung cancer who have not progressed following chemoradiotherapy.