Webinar with Dr. Ross Camidge: Learn about his Experience Treating Patients with EML4-ALK Translocation

I just wanted to offer a reminder that Dr. Ross Camidge, medical oncologist and lung cancer expert from the University of Colorado in Denver, is going to be speaking with me during a webinar this Wednesday, 2/17, at 8 PM EST/5 PM PST.  Among the topics we’ll cover is the EML4-ALK translocation, which is widely [...]

Dr. Shirish Gadgeel on Managing Locally Advanced NSCLC

Our next podcast slide presentation comes from Dr. Shirish Gadgeel, medical oncologist at Wayne State University in Detroit.  He came out to Seattle for a physician education program I run and was kind enough to stay for our NSCLC Patient Education Forum, where he spoke on our Current Standards of Care for Locally Advanced (Stage [...]

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Consolidation Tarceva after Chemo/Radiation for Locally Advanced NSCLC: At Least It Isn’t Significantly Harmful

Perhaps the most unexpected clinical trial result in lung cancer over the past 5 years was the finding in the large Southwest Oncology Group (SWOG) 0023 trial that randomized several hundred patients to maintenance therapy with either the oral EGFR inhibitor  Iressa (gefitinib) or a placebo after chemo/radiation concurrently and then consolidation taxotere (docetaxel).  While [...]

Treatment of Locally-Advanced NSCLC in the Elderly: As Individualized as Medicine Gets

“Locally-advanced NSCLC” is a term generally applied to lung cancers with tumors that have either grown into major structures (such as vertebrae or spine bones, the central airways, or involve the main blood vessels supplying the lung or central chest) or those cancers that have spread to lymph nodes in the central chest (the mediastinum). [...]

Interview with Dr. Suresh Ramalingam: Current Standards and Controversies in Locally Advanced NSCLC

   Dr. Suresh Ramalingam is a longtime friend of mine and a national leader in the field of lung cancer.  He is the Director of the Lung Cancer Program at the Winship Cancer Institute at Emory University in Atlanta, and he was kind enough to sit down with me to talk about his perspective on [...]

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Video Podcast Presentation on Locally Advanced NSCLC

   Ask and ye shall receive!  The leading requiest for a video podcast presentation was for a summary of the subject of locally advanced, unresectable stage III NSCLC.  Here you go:
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Sorry it’s a little rushed, but it’s a struggle to do a topic justice with a 10 minute limit (the most YouTube accepts).  In the future, we’ll [...]

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Responding to Your Wish List of GRACEcasts to Develop

   I appreciate the input from the people who were interested enough to cast a vote in the poll on the GRACE website, indicated the topic that they’d most like to see next. Here’s an interim report of the top vote-getters:
1) (tie) Locally Advanced NSCLC
1) (tie) The ABCs of BAC
3) (tie) Second Line Therapy for [...]

Interview with Dr. Vivek Mehta, Radiation Oncologist: Early Stage and Locally Advanced NSCLC

This audio interview by medical oncologist Dr. Jack West of radiation oncologist and lung cancer expert Dr. Vivek Mehta covers the current and emerging treatment options for radiation alternatives to treat early stage non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

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What I Really Do: Potentially Resectable Stage IIIA NSCLC

   I’ve covered stage IIIA NSCLC in several prior posts, mentioning that it’s a clinical setting that is among the most controversial, but I don’t think I’ve really described my real world approach.  To review, the controversy is that for stage IIIA NSCLC with mediastinal lymph node involvement on the same side as the tumor [...]

Incidental N2 Nodal Disease and the Heterogeneity of Stage IIIA N2 NSCLC

   Probably the most contentious areas of lung cancer management is stage IIIA NSCLC, with N2 nodal involvement, the nodes outside of the lungs, toward the middle of the chest but on the same side as the main tumor.  One of the key issues is that the staging is the same whether there’s a single [...]