Lung Cancer

“We’re learning to understand how to leverage immunotherapy for a cure.”

Ferdinandos Skoulidis, MD, PhD, MRCP, details what he was most excited to learn about at 2021 ASCO.

The addition of neoadjuvant nivolumab plus platinum-doublet chemotherapy significantly improved pathological complete response rates and showed a greater depth of pathological response compared with chemotherapy alone in patients with resectable non–small cell lung cancer.

Although adjuvant treatment with gefitinib delayed early relapse in patients with completely resected EGFR-mutant non–small cell lung cancer, the agent did not significantly improve disease-free survival or overall survival compared with cisplatin/vinorelbine.

Pralsetinib was well tolerated, while demonstrating robust and durable anti-tumor activity when treating heavily pretreated patients with multiple RET fusion–positive advanced solid tumors.

“Using science to guide therapy…has dropped the death rate in lung cancer historically.”

The CheckMate-816 trial is the first positive phase 3 trial demonstrating a significant improvement in pathologic response with neoadjuvant immunotherapy plus chemotherapy in resectable non-small cell lung cancer.

CancerNetwork® spoke with Nikki Martin of the LUNGevity Foundation regarding the “No One Missed” campaign working to provide education and awareness to patients with lung cancer.

The Virtual Nodule Clinic artificial intelligence–powered clinical decision support tool was cleared by the FDA for detection of early-stage lung cancer in lung nodules detected by a CT scan.

Patients with advanced lung cancer whose tumors harbor an NTRK gene fusion with or without central nervous system metastases were found to have high response rates, durable responses, and extended survival benefit with larotrectinib.

“With recent advances in early detection of lung cancer, biomarker testing, and personalized treatment planning, effective patient-provider communication is more important than ever for short- and long-term survivorship,” said Kelly Clark, MA.

The combination of tiragolumab and atezolizumab (Tecentriq) was granted breakthrough therapy designation based on promising efficacy and safety data observed in the phase 2 CITYSCAPE trial.

Under the FDA’s Real-Time Oncology Review Pilot Program and Project ORBIS, the FDA is reviewing a supplemental new drug application for lorlatinib (Lorbrena) as a first-line treatment for patients with ALK-positive metastatic non–small cell lung cancer.

The Emory University Winship Cancer Institute expert discussed FDA approvals and other treatment advances that occurred this year.

This study found that among patients with lung cancer from Latin America, Native American ancestry was associated with increased mutations in the EGFR gene, independent of smoking status.

Full approval has been granted by the FDA to osimertinib (Tagrisso) for use as adjuvant therapy following tumor resection among patients with non–small cell lung cancer whose tumors have EGFR exon 19 deletions or exon 21 L858R mutations.

The American Lung Association’s annual “State of Lung Cancer” (SOLC) report tracked the toll of lung cancer at national and state levels, identifying both promising improvements for the overall population and significant health disparities for racial and ethnic minorities.

The FDA granted breakthrough therapy designation to sotorasib for the treatment of patients with locally advanced or metastatic non-small cell lung cancer with KRAS G12C mutation, as determined by an FDA-approved test, following at least 1 prior systemic therapy.

Janssen submitted a biologics license application to the FDA seeking approval of amivantamab for the treatment of patients with metastatic non-small cell lung cancer with EGFR exon 20 insertion mutations whose disease has progressed on or after platinum-based chemotherapy.

The director of the new Women’s Lung Cancer Program at Mount Sinai spoke about the gaps in lung cancer research for women and what she hopes this new program will offer women moving forward.

This study found that state-level lung cancer screening rates were not aligned with disease burden, with the exception of Kentucky, which has supported comprehensive efforts to implement lung cancer screening.

Though researchers found that Black patients with early-stage non-small cell lung cancer are now more likely to receive the most effective treatment compared to a decade ago, the disparity for this patient population persists.

Given that diagnosing lung cancer in its early stages can lead to successfully eliminating lung cancer with surgery alone, the importance of closing this disparity gap is critical.

An interim analysis of the trial revealed that among patients with previously untreated advanced ALK-positive non-small cell lung cancer, those who received lorlatinib (Lorbrena) had significantly longer PFS, a higher overall and intracranial response, and better quality of life.

These study results suggest that osimertinib as adjuvant therapy is an effective treatment strategy for patients with stage IB to IIIA EGFR-positive non-small cell lung cancer following complete tumor resection.

The SU2C–LUNGevity Foundation–American Lung Association Lung Cancer Interception Dream Team have developed laboratory models to understand the inflammatory process in the lung’s bronchial cells, and how that relates to early lung cancer development.

The FDA approved a 1500 mg fixed dose of durvalumab (Imfinzi) administered every 4 weeks for the treatment of unresectable stage III non-small cell lung cancer after chemoradiation therapy and previously treated advanced bladder cancer.

The clinical trial is designed to evaluate the efficacy and safety of tislelizumab compared to docetaxel in the second- or third-line setting in patients with locally advanced or metastatic non-small cell lung cancer who have progressed on a prior platinum-based chemotherapy.

Researchers suggested that the tumors of patients with stage I and II early-stage non-small cell lung cancer demonstrate the highest tumor mutational burden and most often display the mutational signature associated with tobacco smoking.