Special Populations In Lung Cancer

EGFR Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitors in Advanced BAC

Published November 5, 2006 | By Dr West | 4 Comments

As we established several years ago that it is indeed possible to do clinical trials with more than 50 or even 100 patients with advanced BAC, we were also seeing that those first forays into advanced BAC with standard chemotherapy were somewhat disappoingting (described further in another post). Fortunately, as it became clearer that we needed other options for advanced BAC, we started to see the first cases of patients with BAC who received Iressa on clinical trials who would sometimes have rapid and profound responses to this drug (below showing a difference after just 5 days):

The lung cancer physicians at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) reviewed the results from 139 patients who received the EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) Iressa (gefitinib) as a single agent over a 5 year period and found that a diagnosis of BAC was among the strongest predictors for having a response to Iressa (abstract here).
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Posted in Bronchioloalveolar Carcinoma (BAC), Bronchioloalveolar Carcinoma (BAC), Clinical variables in EGFR therapy, Core Concepts, Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR)-based therapies, First-line treatment, Lung Cancer, Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC), Second-line treatment, Special Populations in Lung Cancer, Stage IV/Advanced/Metastatic NSCLC, Targeted therapies, Treatment | Tagged advanced BAC, Bronchioloalveolar Carcinoma (BAC), clinical variables, Core Concepts, EGFR Based Therapy, EGFR therapy, EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitor, First-line treatment, metastatic NSCLC, NSCLC, Second-line treatment, Special Populations in Lung Cancer, targeted therapy, Treatment | 4 Comments

Defining Bronchioloalveolar Carcinoma (BAC): One End of a Spectrum

Published October 11, 2006 | By Dr West | 4 Comments

The clinical syndrome of BAC is characterized by spread primarily through the lungs, a higher proportion of never-smokers or light former smokers, a greater proportion of women, and often progresses more slowly than most other lung cancers. This clinical and radiographic (scans) scenario isn’t necessarily seen only with “pure BAC” under the microscrope from a biopsy, but rather can be a spectrum from pure BAC to part non-invasive BAC pattern and part invasive adenocarcinoma, and on the other end of the continuum is invasive adenocarcinoma, as shown in the illustration of how these appear under a microscope.