Lung Cancer

Two presentations at the IASLC WCLC 2018 discussed the evidence on treating breathlessness with pharmacologic vs nonpharmacologic therapy.

A study shows hyperprogressive disease (HPD) occurred more commonly among patients with pretreated non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) receiving PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors.

ONCOLOGY spoke with Eric Ko, MD, PhD, who recently published a review article with his colleagues on strategies for combining radiation therapy with immunotherapy for the treatment of non–small-cell lung cancer.

A new study suggests that the cytokine CXCL12 could be useful as a prognostic biomarker in patients with neuroendocrine tumors of the lung.

Taking corticosteroids at the time of treatment initiation with PD-L1 inhibitors may lead to inferior outcomes in patients with non–small-cell lung cancer.

Low-dose CT screening for lung cancer is recommended for certain individuals, but two new studies highlight some of the limitations and growing pains of a screening program.

Patients treated with anti–PD-1 or anti–PD-L1 inhibitors in clinical trials were successfully retreated with the inhibitors after discontinuing the treatment.

Smoking cessation and relapse prevention expert Alan Blum, MD, discusses how oncologists and other clinicians can and should play a larger role in tobacco control.

A rapid EGFR-specific assay allowed for quicker identification of EGFR mutation–positive NSCLC, and thus a shorter time to initiation of EGFR-directed therapy.

Researchers identified the percentage cutoff for ALK positivity that is needed for clinical utility in ALK-positive NSCLC.

In a phase I trial, this first-in-class novel drug yielded a 71% response rate in very high expressers of PD-L1 treated at 1,200 mg every 2 weeks.

Quit rates reported by a smoking-cessation program at Duke Cancer Center increased from 17% to 34% in the 2 years since it was implemented.

In CheckMate -078, nivolumab yielded superior OS compared with docetaxel in previously treated NSCLC, regardless of PD-L1 expression and tumor histology.

Treatment with the second-generation EGFR TKI dacomitinib resulted in improved overall survival over gefitinib in patients with NSCLC and activating EGFR mutations.

In this article, an approach to the diagnostic evaluation of patients with newly diagnosed advanced NSCLC is suggested, in an attempt to identify the best treatment options.

An avelumab combination therapy shows promise against ALK-driven lung cancers, but another was neither safe nor effective in non–ALK-driven cases.

Cell-free DNA, used to guide treatment of advanced lung cancer, may become a tool for early detection, based on analysis of participants in the Circulating Cell-free Genome Atlas study.

Researchers in Hong Kong found dacomitinib was associated with longer OS than gefitinib in patients with advanced EGFR+ NSCLC.

Among former heavy smokers, the risk for lung cancer remains significantly increased compared with never-smokers, even more than 25 years since quitting.

In this video, Apar Ganti, MD, highlights recent advances and studies presented at ASCO 2018 on management of NSCLC and SCLC with ICIs and targeted agents.

Weekly patient symptom self-reports, filed using an online tool, allowed timely detection of lung cancer relapses and prolonged patient survival.

In this video, Dr. Leena Gandhi discusses KEYNOTE-042, a study of pembrolizumab vs chemotherapy in NSCLC (abstract LBA4), and other key ICI trials reported at ASCO 2018.

Corticosteroid medications are associated with poorer outcomes of therapy with immune checkpoint inhibitors for patients with lung cancer.

Administering pembrolizumab before EGFR TKIs may be inappropriate for TKI-naive patients with EGFR-mutant NSCLC.

Adding pembrolizumab to pemetrexed and carboplatin for advanced nonsquamous NSCLC is associated with improved overall survival at 24 months.