Lung Cancer

November 12, 2020 — Pembrolizumab led to a 38% central nervous system response rate and was well tolerated in patients with leptomeningeal metastasis from solid tumors. However, the study was closed early due to poor accrual.

November 12, 2020 - AMG 757, a DLL3-directed, half-life extended bispecific T-cell engager, was shown to have a feasible adverse effect profile in patients with small cell lung cancer.

Adagrasib, a novel agent aimed at KRAS G12C mutations, has demonstrated early signs of efficacy in patients with advanced non–small cell lung cancer and colorectal cancer whose tumors harbor the alteration, raising hopes for a new therapy against a challenging oncogenic target.

D. Ross Camidge, MD, PhD discusses the role of targeted therapy and how it is rapidly expanding in the treatment paradigm of patients with non–small cell lung cancer.

November 11, 2020 - Rao Mushtaq, MD, provides perspective on these pivotal data in EGFR-mutant non–small cell lung cancer.

November 10, 2020 - Nasser Hanna, MD, discusses immunotherapy and, although, it may be the right therapy for most patients with lung cancer expressing PD-L1 greater than or equal to 50%, for those who are at risk for cancer-related morbidity with early progressive disease, chemoimmunotherapy may be the more appropriate choice.

Haiying Cheng, MD, PhD highlights new data from key clinical trials in extensive-stage small cell lung cancer.

The phase 3 KEYNOTE-598 trial evaluating the dual immunotherapy combination comprised of pembrolizumab and ipilimumab as frontline treatment in patients with metastatic non–small cell lung cancer who have a PD-L1 tumor proportion score of 50% or greater and do not harbor any EGFR or ALK aberrations has been discontinued.

Alterations in MET, RET, and NTRK have become established actionable drivers of oncogenesis in lung cancer, and therapeutics targeting these aberrations have since obtained regulatory approval from the FDA and have been incorporated into treatment guidelines.

Although historically considered to be undruggable, the KRAS G12C mutation has since emerged as an actionable alteration in the field of non–small cell lung cancer.

In our exclusive interview, Dr. Aggarwal and Dr. Gandara discuss the evolution of liquid biopsy in lung cancer, explain the clinical implications of recent liquid biopsy approvals, and forecast the future of liquid biopsy in the field.

Maximilian Diehn, MD, PhD, discusses how the use of circulating tumor DNA to analyze minimal residual disease status in patients with lung cancer and other solid tumors is a rapidly developing field with the potential to further personalize treatment decisions about adjuvant therapy.

The oncology community has risen up as a unified front in the battle against coronavirus disease 2019, launching pivotal research efforts to better understand the enemy and collecting data to develop effective therapeutics to fill the treatment arsenal.