Lung Cancer News Roundup: June 2026

Lung cancer news in June was dominated by ASCO 2026 readouts, with major movement in EGFR-mutated, ALK-positive, and small cell disease. Unlike breast cancer, lung cancer didn't see a wave of new FDA approvals this particular month—June's oncology approvals skewed toward breast, prostate, and bladder cancer—but several trials presented at ASCO are likely to drive approvals later this year. Here's what mattered.

ASCO 2026: a strong month for biomarker-driven therapy

The ASCO Annual Meeting (May 29-June 2 in Chicago) reinforced a trend that's been building for several years: the more precisely a lung cancer's molecular drivers are identified, the more treatment options patients now have.

• CROWN at 7 years: durable control in ALK-positive disease. The phase 3 CROWN trial's (NCT03052608) long-term follow-up showed that patients on first-line lorlatinib (Lorbrena) for ALK-positive advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) had a 7-year progression-free survival rate of 55% compared with just 3% on crizotinib (Xalkori). Just as notably, there were no new brain-metastasis progression events after 30 months—a meaningful finding given how often ALK-positive lung cancer spreads to the brain.¹
• A new entrant in EGFR exon 20 insertion disease. Phase 2 (NCT05256290) data on silevertinib in patients with treatment-naive NSCLC with nonclassical EGFR mutations added another option to a fast-moving subfield.²
• Bispecific antibodies move into first-line NSCLC. The phase 2/3 ROSETTA Lung-02 trial (NCT06712316) tested pumitamig, a PD-L1 × VEGF-A bispecific antibody, plus chemotherapy as first-line treatment, reporting strong overall response rates regardless of PD-L1 expression level, in both squamous and nonsquamous disease.³ A head-to-head phase 3 comparison against pembrolizumab (Keytruda) plus chemotherapy is already underway and will be closely watched.
• STK11/KEAP1/KRAS-mutated disease. Interim results from the phase 2b TRITON study (NCT06008093) suggested that adding tremelimumab (Imjudo) to durvalumab (Imfinzi) plus chemotherapy may help nonsquamous metastatic NSCLC with carry STK11, KEAP1, and/or KRAS mutations—a population that has historically responded poorly to standard immunotherapy combinations.⁴
• Small cell lung cancer (SCLC): a rare bright spot. SCLC has lagged behind NSCLC for years, but ASCO 2026 brought new hope. Updated analysis of DeLLphi-304 (NCT05740566), the trial behind tarlatamab's (Imdelltra) approval, examined the drug's effectiveness against brain metastases specifically—an important question given how often SCLC spreads intracranially.⁵ Separately, researchers previewed how molecular SCLC subtypes (SCLC-A, SCLC-N, SCLC-P, and SCLC-I) might predict who benefits most from lurbinectedin (Zepzelca) plus atezolizumab (Tecentriq) maintenance therapy, suggesting the field may be moving toward subtype-selected treatment.
• KRAS G12C: a new RAS(ON) candidate. The anticipated SUNRAY-01 (NCT06119581) presentation looked at olomorasib, an investigational pan-KRAS or RAS(ON)-class inhibitor, in previously treated G12C-mutated NSCLC, as the field tries to build on existing G12C inhibitors.⁷

REFERENCES

1. Mok TSK et al. Lorlatinib vs crizotinib as first-line treatment for advanced ALK+ non-small cell lung cancer: 7-year update from the phase 3 CROWN study. J Clin Oncol. 44, 8502-8502(2026).
DOI:10.1200/JCO.2026.44.16_suppl.8502

2. Yu HA et al. Safety and efficacy results of the phase 2 study of silevertinib (BDTX-1535) in previously treated patients with non-small cell lung cancer with non-classical and C797S EGFR mutations. J Clin Oncol. 44, 8620-8620(2026). DOI:10.1200/JCO.2026.44.16_suppl.8620

3. Peters S et al. Phase 2 data from ROSETTA Lung-02, a global randomized phase 2/3 trial of pumitamig (PD-L1 × VEGF-A bsAb) + chemotherapy in 1L NSCLC. J Clin Oncol. 44, 8513-8513(2026).
DOI:10.1200/JCO.2026.44.16_suppl.8513
4. Skoulidis F et al. Tremelimumab (T) + durvalumab (D) + chemotherapy (CT) vs pembrolizumab (P) + CT in 1L non-squamous (NSQ) metastatic NSCLC (mNSCLC) with STK11, KEAP1, and/or KRAS mutations (mut): Interim analysis (IA) of the phase 2b TRITON study. J Clin Oncol. 44, 8515-8515(2026). DOI:10.1200/JCO.2026.44.16_suppl.8515

5. Mountzios GS et al. Intracranial efficacy of tarlatamab versus chemotherapy (CTx) as second-line (2L) treatment for small cell lung cancer (SCLC): DeLLphi-304 phase 3 post hoc analysis. J Clin Oncol. 44, 8006-8006(2026). DOI:10.1200/JCO.2026.44.16_suppl.8006

6. Paz-Ares LG et al. Transcriptomic analyses of molecular subsets and correlations with clinical outcomes from the phase 3 IMforte study of lurbinectedin (lurbi) + atezolizumab (atezo) maintenance treatment (Tx) in extensive-stage small-cell lung cancer (ES-SCLC). J Clin Oncol. 44, 8014-8014(2026). DOI:10.1200/JCO.2026.44.16_suppl.8014

7. Burns TF et al. 1L olomorasib plus pembrolizumab +/- chemotherapy in KRAS G12C-mutant NSCLC patients +/- a prior cycle of SOC: Results from LOXO-RAS 20001 and SUNRAY-01. J Clin Oncol. 44, 8570-8570(2026).
DOI:10.1200/JCO.2026.44.16_suppl.8570