LUNG CANCER

Based on data from the&nbsp;phase III KEYNOTE-189 trial, the FDA has expanded the approval for&nbsp;pemetrexed injection in combination with pembrolizumab and platinum-based chemotherapy to include the first-line treatment of patients with metastatic nonsquamous non&ndash;small cell lung cancer without <em>EGFR</em> or <em>ALK</em> alterations.

During a presentation at the <em>16th Annual </em>Winter Lung Cancer Conference,&nbsp;Julie R. Brahmer, MD, MSc shed light on some of the immunotherapy treatment options that could be entering the lung cancer pipeline over the next 5 years.

Edward B. Garon, MD,&nbsp;discusses the newer role of immunotherapy in the treatment of patients with unresectable stage III NSCLC with the approval of durvalumab in this setting for patients whose disease has not progressed following concurrent chemoradiation.

Christina S. Baik, MD, MPH,&nbsp;discusses several existing and emerging treatment options for <em>ROS1</em>, <em>BRAF</em>, and <em>NTRK </em>genetic aberrations.

General Cancer

Bristol-Myers Squibb has announced its decision to withdraw a&nbsp;supplemental biologics license application currently with&nbsp;the FDA seeking frontline approval for the combination of nivolumab and ipilimumab for patients with advanced non&ndash;small cell lung cancer with tumor mutational burden &ge;10 mutations per megabase.

Michael Gieske, MD, discusses how his community center was able to implement a lung cancer screening program.

A retrospective analysis of survival data from patients with metastatic non&ndash;small cell lung cancer showed that patients who received treatment at academic centers had better survival rates than those treated at community-based centers, and this disparity was more pronounced when patients were stratified by histology.

A supplemental biologics license application submitted to the FDA for&nbsp;atezolizumab, carboplatin, and nab-paclitaxel has been accepted. The application, based on findings from the&nbsp;phase III IMpower130 trial, is seeking the agent&#39;s approval for&nbsp;patients with metastatic nonsquamous non&ndash;small cell lung cancer.

Increasing clinical relevance of less common gene signatures and alterations is leading to a benefit from broad-panel next-generation sequencing testing for patients with metastatic non&ndash;small cell lung cancer, according to an expert at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.

The use of big data is revolutionizing many industries, allowing greater insights by drilling into evidence with more detail.

Due to the significant decline in smoking and an increase in advances for early cancer detection and screening, the cancer death rate has declined 27% in the United States from 1991 to 2016, according to the American Cancer Society&rsquo;s annual report on cancer rates.

A look back at all the&nbsp;FDA news&nbsp;that happened in the month of&nbsp;December 2018, including several new approvals, an accelerated approval, and a priority review.

To assist clinicians in the day-to-day management of their patients, the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer has developed its first guidelines to help direct immune checkpoint inhibitor treatment of NSCLC.

Adding aggressive, local radiation or surgery to frontline systemic therapy in patients with stage IV NSCLC whose disease has spread to a limited number of sites resulted in improved overall survival, according to findings presented by Daniel Gomez, MD, and colleagues at the 60th Annual Meeting of the American Society for Radiation Oncology in San Antonio, Texas.

Diwakar Davar, MBBS, MSc, discusses how data from the phase I trial of TSR-022, an anti-TIM-3 monoclonal antibody, and TSR-042, an anti-PD-1 agent, impact the treatment of patients with both melanoma and lung cancer.

The review period for&nbsp;a supplemental biologics license application for first-line treatment with pembrolizumab monotherapy for the treatment of patients with locally advanced or metastatic nonsquamous or squamous non&ndash;small cell lung cancer with PD-L1 expression (tumor proportion score) of &ge;1% and no&nbsp;<em>EGFR&nbsp;</em>or&nbsp;<em>ALK&nbsp;</em>genomic tumor aberrations has been extended by the FDA, according to a press release by Merck,&nbsp;the manufacturer of pembrolizumab.

Several oncology experts discuss the FDA approvals they found most significant in 2018.

Precision medicine has produced some dramatic successes in patients with advanced cancer. With developments in molecular profiling, targeted therapies are being applied to multiple tumors, most notably in advanced melanoma, NSCLC, and several types of leukemia. Alison Schram, MD, and David M. Hyman, MD, point out the challenges in determining the proportion of patients who will benefit from receiving targeted therapies.

Acquired resistance to tyrosine kinase inhibitors targeting <em>EGFR</em> mutations in patients with non&ndash;small cell lung cancer are leading to next-generation therapies equipped to circumvent the mutations that arise from initial treatment.&nbsp;A review of these mechanisms, and the latest agents being developed to address them, shows that the pipeline holds promise for the future.

The phase III TAHOE trial evaluating rovalpituzumab tesirine as a second-line treatment for&nbsp;patients with advanced small cell lung cancer has been put on hold, based on a recommendation from an&nbsp;Independent Data Monitoring Committee, according to AbbVie, the developer of the investigational antibody-drug conjugate.<br /> &nbsp;

Mark G. Kris, MD, discusses what is most important in treating patients with lung cancer today.