Dr. Lopategui on the Implications of Genomic Sequencing in Lung Cancer

Jean Lopategui, MD, associate professor of pathology and director of Translational Genomics and of the Molecular Genetics Pathology Fellowship at Cedars-Sinai, discusses the implications of genomic sequencing in lung cancer.

Patients with lung cancer should undergo molecular profiling to determine whether they could benefit from EGFR-, BRAF-, ALK-, ROS1-, or NTRK-directed therapy. Patients should undergo profiling upon diagnosis because some of these drugs, particularly for EGFR and ALK mutations, are approved for frontline use, says Lopategui. Other drugs for patients with MET exon 14 skipping mutations or amplifications, RET fusions, HER2 mutations, and tumor mutational burden are in development, and are being explored in clinical trials, explains Lopategui.

Recently, entrectinib (Rozlytrek) and larotrectinib (Vitrakvi) received regulatory approval for the treatment of patients with solid tumors who harbor NTRK fusions.