LUNG CANCER

Adult patients with&nbsp;<em>ALK</em>-positive, locally advanced or metastatic non&ndash;small cell lung cancer who had not received a prior ALK inhibitor experienced a more than 50% reduction in the risk of&nbsp;disease progression or death with treatment with brigatinib (Alunbrig), compared with&nbsp;the first-line standard of care, crizotinib.

Patients with&nbsp;<em>ROS1</em> fusion&ndash;positive non&ndash;small cell lung cancer had clinically meaningful and durable benefit across multiple doses of repotrectinib (TPX-0005), according to interim findings from the ongoing phase I/II TRIDENT-1 study,&nbsp;presented at the 19th World Conference on Lung Cancer.

Promising efficacy was seen with the novel targeted therapy poziotinib in patients with metastatic, heavily pretreated&nbsp;<em>EGFR&nbsp;</em>and&nbsp;<em>HER2 </em>exon 20 mutant non&ndash;small cell lung cancer, with a best response rate to date of 55%, according to phase II study results presented at the 19th World Conference on Lung Cancer.

Robert C. Doebele, MD, PhD, discusses resistance in patients with ROS1-positive lung cancer.

HER2 mutations have been identified as another oncogenic driver in the growing list of actionable targets in non&ndash;small cell lung cancer. Based on a mounting body of evidence on the impact of HER2 mutations in lung cancer and the growing focus on personalized medicine, the HER2 receptor has gained focus as a potential target for precision medicine treatments for patients with NSCLC.

A Chemoimmunotherapeutic Approach to Nondriver NSCLC

<em>Targeted Oncology</em>, a print and digital resource that offers content and expert opinions on precision medicine in oncology, launched its second &ldquo;Expert Perspective: Virtual Tumor Board&rdquo; on Wednesday, September 12. The Virtual Tumor Board is a video-editorial board discussion that features key opinion leaders from a specific oncological field. This episode will focus on non&ndash;small cell lung cancer.

A&nbsp;supplemental biologics license application for pembrolizumab (Keytruda) has been granted a priority review designation by the FDA for the frontline treatment of patients&nbsp;with locally advanced or metastatic nonsquamous or squamous non&ndash;small cell lung cancer with a PD-L1 expression level of &ge;1% and no <em>EGFR</em> or <em>ALK</em> genomic tumor aberrations.

Frontline pembrolizumab (Keytruda) has been approved by the European Commission for&nbsp;use in combination with standard chemotherapy as a treatment for patients with metastatic nonsquamous non&ndash;small cell lung cancer without <em>EGFR</em>&nbsp;or <em>ALK</em> mutations. The approval is&nbsp;based on results from the phase III KEYNOTE-189 trial.

The review period for a supplemental biologics license application seeking the approval of atezolizumab (Tecentriq) for use in combination with bevacizumab (Avastin), carboplatin, and paclitaxel or the first-line treatment of patients with metastatic nonsquamous non&ndash;small cell lung cancer has been extended by the FDA.

Benjamin P. Levy, MD, clinical director of Medical Oncology at John Hopkins Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center at Sibley Memorial Hospital, discusses genotyping in lung cancer, particularly focusing on&nbsp;<em>ROS1&nbsp;</em>and&nbsp;<em>TRK&nbsp;</em>mutations.