jls57
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My mom might have an opportunity to join a Phase III trial with Nivolumab. She is NSCLC Adenocarcinoma EGFR + with a 19 deletion. Have there been any indicators that immunotherapy is effective for EGFR + patients? She is also a never smoker. Thank you in advance for any information. It is greatly appreciated.
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Reply # - August 29, 2014, 10:20 PM
Reply To: Nivolumab for EGFR+ patient
The experience with immunotherapy agents is still preliminary, but as Dr. West has stated:
"There have also been some early findings that efficacy of immune checkpoint inhibitors may be particularly favorable in those with squamous NSCLC and smokers or ex-smokers (as opposed to never-smokers who are far more likely to have a cancer harboring a driver mutation like EGFR, ALK, or ROS1), but we definitely need to learn more about these preliminary leads before using them to guide enrollment or treatment recommendations." - http://cancergrace.org/lung/2014/01/05/5-key-points-on-immunotherapy-fo…
JimC
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Reply # - August 30, 2014, 01:49 PM
Reply To: Nivolumab for EGFR+ patient
At this point, I'd say that there really hasn't been any trend of greater or lesser responsiveness based on EGFR mutation or smoking status. The early hint of perhaps greater responsiveness in patients with a smoking history or squamous histology in an early report hasn't really been a consistent finding. I would say that there's no critical mass of data to say that a subset of patients is meaningfully more or less likely to respond well to immunotherapy.
Good luck.
-Dr. West