Dr. Levy Discusses the FLAURA Study in Lung Cancer

Benjamin P. Levy, MD, assistant professor of oncology, clinical director of medical oncology, Johns Hopkins Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center, Johns Hopkins Medicine, discusses the FLAURA study in patients with lung cancer.

FLAURA mirrored what was seen from the phase I frontline experience with osimertinib (Tagrisso). The progression-free survival (PFS) in the frontline setting ranged from 18 to 20 months, which was not seen before, explains Levy. This somewhat mirrors the alectinib (Alecensa) data in the ALK-positive patient population. It is practice changing when a PFS is close to 2 years, Levy says.

According to Levy, it is a different discussion when prescribing osimertinib to these patients because there is a low incidence of rash or diarrhea in trials of the agent. This had been practice changing, not only because of the PFS benefits, but also because there is lower toxicity and good data to suggest that osimertinib has a very good chance of crossing the blood-brain barrier and eliciting responses in the brain. This claim is based on data from the 2017 ASCO Annual Meeting. However, what to give a patient after osimertinib still requires more research, says Levy.