Dr. Yorio on Treatment Options for Patients With Rare Mutations in Metastatic Lung Cancer

Jeff Yorio, MD, medical oncologist, Texas Oncology, discusses treatment options for patients with rare mutations in metastatic lung cancer.

The identification of rare molecular aberrations in metastatic lung cancer has increased the utility of up-front genetic testing, explains Yorio. Moreover, targeted therapy may be an option for patients with specific mutations.

Clinical trials may be an alternative for patients with an alteration for which there is no available treatment strategy; however, it can be difficult to enroll patients with rare alterations like MET exon 14 skipping mutations in large clinical studies, says Yorio.

Pooling patients with a rare abnormality is important to demonstrate the efficacy of an investigational drug and develop more efficient models to treat patients with potentially actionable mutations, concludes Yorio.