Lung cancer screening saves lives. This once controversial statement has now been validated in recent large, randomized trials of low-dose computed tomographic (LDCT) lung cancer screening (LCS) including the National Lung Screening Trial (NLST)1 and the Dutch-Belgian Lung Cancer Screening Trial.2 However, widespread implementation of LCS has been limited. In the United States, screening rates…

Ben Levy, MD When it comes to the use of metformin as a treatment for lung cancer, the jury is still out on its potential. “Metformin’s utility as an anticancer drug is still being investigated,” said Benjamin Levy, MD, clinical director of medical oncology, Johns Hopkins Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center at Sibley Memorial Hospital. “There…

When patients with advanced metastatic NSCLC initially make their way into our medical oncology clinic, one of the first things we check for is the molecular pathology testing report, in addition to the patient’s PD-L1 score. At the very least, NCCN guidelines recommend testing for EGFR mutations (canonical, uncommon [G719X, S768I, L861Q], and exon 20…

Dr. Negrao is an assistant professor in the Department of Thoracic/Head and Neck Medical Oncology, Division of Cancer Medicine, MD Anderson Cancer Center. Dr. Negrao has a diverse experience in medical oncology, specializing in the diagnosis and treatment of thoracic malignancies, most notably lung cancer. Q. Can you describe the mechanism of action of vemurafenib?…

Daniel Kahneman, PhD, was awarded the Nobel Prize in 2002 for proving, among other things, that intuitions—even expert ones—fail and that formulas based on data fare better. Intuitions are more reliable for short-term predictions if they are based on stable environments.1  For decades, we have had a relatively stable environment in the prevention, diagnosis, and…

HER2 can be aberrantly expressed in NSCLC, caused by its mutation and/or amplification.1 Like in breast cancer, patients with NSCLC with somatic HER2 mutations rarely show concurrent gene amplification, highlighting mutation as an independent factor.2 However, previous clinical trials with HER2-targeted agents have yielded disappointing results in HER2-mutant NSCLC. Although only accounting for a minority…

Tissue still represents the “gold standard” biosource for molecular profiling of lung cancer. However, the use of tissue samples in clinical practice is associated with several technical and biological limitations. For instance, tissue specimens can provide only a small picture of the complex molecular landscape of patients with lung cancer, freezing the situation at the…

In reference to: Mayoux M, Roller A, Pulko V, et al. Dendritic cells dictate responses to PD-L1 blockade cancer immunotherapy. Sci Transl Med. 2020;12(534):eaav7431.  Checkpoint blockade with PD-1 or PD-L1 inhibitors has shown durable clinical responses across many cancer types. Previously, it had been generally believed that PD-1/PD-L1 blockade generates antitumor immunity by reinvigorating the…