Dr. Padda on Next Steps for Treatment of EGFR+ NSCLC

Sukhmani Padda, MD, assistant professor of medicine, Stanford University Medical Center, member, Stanford Cancer Institute, discusses next steps for treatment of patients with EGFR-positive non—small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

Moving forward, the therapies used in this space will have to be increasingly precise, Padda says. Based on preliminary examination of plasma samples taken from patients enrolled in the phase III FLAURA study, it is becoming clear that a tailored approach needs to be taken for each individual case.

In order to better understand mechanisms of resistance to osimertinib (Tagrisso), there is an ongoing phase II trial called ELIO in which investigators are evaluating plasma samples from patients treated with the frontline drug. Padda says investigators are looking at pretreatment plasma samples, samples taken during the course of treatment, and samples taken at the time of progression. In the FLAURA study, she adds, investigators did not consistently biopsy patients at the time of progression. ELIO is addressing this, as well as the instances where patients develop histological transformation to squamous NSCLC or small cell lung cancer.