NSCLC (Issue 8)

Walter J. Curran, Jr., MD, FACR, associate vice president of cancer, Woodruff Health Sciences Center, executive director, Winship Cancer Institute, Lawrence W. Davis Chair of Radiation Oncology, Emory University, discusses radiation therapy dose for the treatment of patients with lung cancer.

After a successful demonstration as single-agents, clinical trials are currently assessing PD-1 and PD-L1 inhibitors, combined with chemotherapy, targeted therapies, and radiation therapy, in an attempt to further improve outcomes for patients who have non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

Barbara J. Gitlitz, MD, associate professor of clinical medicine, Keck Medicine, University of Southern California, discusses EGFR mutations in patients with lung cancer.

Next generation therapies proven to be highly effective, are in development for patients who have oncogene-driven non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), specifically those with alterations in EGFR, ALK, ROS1, and NTRK.

Roy Decker, MD, PhD, associate professor of therapeutic radiology, assistant professor of surgery (Otolaryngology), Clinical Research Program Leader, Therapeutic Radiology, Yale University, discusses stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) in surgery for patients with early non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

In addition to late patient presentation, the high mortality rate in lung cancer can be largely attributed to the complex nature of the disease and a very high rate of heterogeneity in the causative molecular abnormalities.

Immunotherapies (immune checkpoint inhibitors) and targeted therapies (tyrosine kinase inhibitors [TKIs] that target specific mutations in one or more oncogenic drivers) represent two of the most researched types of therapy under investigation for the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

An impressive array of newly approved treatments, as well as investigational agents, for non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) emerged in the first 6 months of 2015.