LUNG CANCER

Treatment with the novel multikinase inhibitor entrectinib achieved objective responses in 79% of patients with solid tumors associated with NTRK, ROS-1, or ALK rearrangements.

The FDA has approved afatinib for the treatment of patients with advanced squamous cell non-small cell lung cancer following progression on platinum-based chemotherapy.

Patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who had ceased to respond to EGFR TKI therapy demonstrated a rapid and robust response to the investigational agent BI-1482694 (HM61713).

The FDA's Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee (ODAC) voted 12-1 against the accelerated approval of rociletinib for patients with metastatic EGFR T790M-mutated non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who have previously received an EGFR-targeted therapy.

The FDA has granted a priority review to atezolizumab for the treatment of patients with locally advanced or metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who express PD-L1 and have progressed after a platinum-containing regimen.

Christina Baik, MD, MPH, discusses alectinib compared to crizotinib in the first-line setting for patients with ALK-positive lung cancer.

Promising early phase clinical trials have led to the initiation of the phase III JUNIPER trial, which is assessing abemaciclib (LY2835219) for patients with previously treated KRAS-mutant lung cancer, a traditionally hard to treat genetic subtype.

Treatment with gefitinib (Iressa) failed to show noninferiority compared with erlotinib (Tarceva) for patients with pretreated non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

Thomas Stinchcombe, MD, discusses the complicated nature of squamous cell lung cancer. Stinchcombe says that there has been a recent boom in targeted therapies for non-squamous cell lung cancer, though not as much research in squamous cell lung cancer due to its multitude of mutations.

In an interview with Targeted Oncology, Sarah Goldberg, MD, MPH, assistant professor of Medicine and Medical Oncology, Yale Cancer Center, discussed the efficacy of immunotherapies, PD-L1 as a biomarker, and how these therapies will continue to alter the treatment of patients with lung cancer.

In an interview with Targeted Oncology, Edward Kim, MD, discussed the FDA-approved immunotherapies nivolumab and pembrolizumab along with potential combinations, biomarkers, and ongoing research.

Christina Baik, MD, MPH, assistant professor, Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, Thoracic/Head and Neck, Department of Medicine, Division of Medical Oncology, University of Washington, discusses the efficacy of alectinib after first-line crizotinib in patients with ALK-positive lung cancer. Baik says alectinib generally works for about 8 months and is easy to take for patients.

The combination of the PD-L1 inhibitor durvalumab and the CTLA-4 inhibitor tremelimumab, showed antitumor activity in patients with locally advanced or metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), irrespective of PD-L1 status, according to a recent phase Ib study published in The Lancet Oncology.

Edward Kim, MD, chair of the department of Solid Tumor Oncology, Levine Cancer Institute, discusses the further work that needs to be done when indicating patient populations with certain biomarkers in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

Sarah Goldberg, MD, MPH, assistant professor of Medicine and Medical Oncology, Yale Cancer Center, discusses coming trials looking at immunotherapy beyond the second-line setting in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

Molecular Diagnostics in NSCLC with David Berz, MD, PhD, and Philip Bonomi, MD