Current TKI Therapy Practices and TKI Combinations in Lung Cancer

James CH Yang, MD, PhD, Professor of Medicine, Deputy Director, Department of Medical Oncology, National Taiwan University Hospital, Director, Cancer Research, Center National Taiwan University College of Medicine, discusses current practices for administering TKI therapy and the potential for TKI combinations.

Clinical Pearls:

• Physicians should test for EGFR and ALK mutations in all non-squamous-non-small cell lung cancer patients who have metastatic disease.
• Patients who have any of these mutations will be treated with TKI monotherapy.
• There are strategies to combine TKIs with bevacizumab or chemotherapy in the experimental setting.
• Patients who have developed resistance, the current standard is to receive chemotherapy.
• In the experimental setting, researchers are exploring EGFR TKIs in combination with targeted therapies or ALK inhibitors for patients who have developed resistance.