Systemic, Targeted, & Immune Therapies

By Heather Wakelee, MD Posted: October 2017 For most of the world, four cycles of cisplatin-based adjuvant chemotherapy is the standard of care for patients with resected stage II and IIIA non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), and is offered to many patients with stage IB tumors at least 4 cm in size or larger. This…

By Cynthia L. Kryder, MS, CCC-Sp Posted: October 2017 Editor Note: The article is part of a newly launched ongoing series about immunooncology (IO) combination therapy, future articles of which will address PD-L1 and CTLA-4 combinations as well as IO in a curative setting, the Blueprint project, managing toxicities, as well as other related topics.…

Posted: June 2017 By David Planchard, MD, PhD What was the rationale for conducting clinical research in BRAF mutationpositive NSCLC? Recently, progress has been made in characterization of the oncogenic driver mutations that contribute to the molecular pathogenesis of lung cancers, including activating mutations in EGFR and ALK rearrangements. Moreover, lung cancer has one of…

Posted: June 2017 By Cynthia L. Kryder, MS Decades of immunology research have shown that it is possible to harness the power of the immune system to fight cancer. In particular, recent discoveries regarding the regulation of T-cell responses have contributed to the development of genomically targeted agents and immune checkpoint therapies that have improved…

Posted: February 2017 By Fred R. Hirsch, MD, PhD In the new era of immunotherapy in thoracic cancer, evaluating PD-L1 status remains a clinical challenge. In recognition of the potential confusion generated by having multiple predictive assays related to the same “family” of drugs, a workshop led by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA),…

Posted: February 2017 By Melody Watson The first plenary session on the last day of IASLC WCLC 2016 covered one of the most exciting areas in NSCLC research today: immunotherapy. The first speaker, Julie R. Brahmer, MD, from the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at John Hopkins, Baltimore, US, presented key patient-related outcomes from KEYNOTE-024,…

By Vassiliki A. Papadimitrakopoulou, MD Lung-MAP (S1400), is a unique master multi-study protocol that incorporates genomic testing of tumors through a next-generation sequencing (NGS) platform (Foundation Medicine) and biomarker-driven therapies for patients with squamous cell lung cancer (SCC) after progression on first-line therapy. This effort represents a unique private-public partnership supported by the National Cancer…

By Naiyer A. Rizvi The rapid development of anti-PD-1 and PD-L1 antibodies in cancer underscores the tremendous impact they have had on the cancer landscape and for our patients. The first publication in 2010 forever changed our notion of “immunogenic” and “non-immunogenic” tumors.1 In this landmark paper, nivolumab, an immunotherapy agent, demonstrated activity not just…

By Tony S. K. Mok, BMSc, MD, FRCPC Patients must first be identified as having an epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutation before they can benefit from EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKI). Furthermore, to benefit from third-generation EGFR TKI such as osimertinib, it is essential to identify the presence of resistance exon 20 T790M mutations…

By Erik J. MacLaren, PhD Osimertinib, a third-generation epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI), received FDA approval in November 2015 for use in patients with metastatic EGFR T790M non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) whose disease has progressed on other EGFR TKIs. Data presented in April 2016 at the European Lung Cancer Conference…