Basic Cancer Info

Dr. Pinder previously summarized the early story of the newly identified EML4-ALK mutation in NSCLC, which traces back only a couple of years. Amazingly, in that short time, treatments targeting this mutation have already been identified and administered to patients who are benefiting from these novel agents at this very moment.

In the same issue of the New England Journal of Medicine that contained the IPASS trial results, Dr. Rosell and colleagues reported results of their effort to institute large-scale EGFR mutation testing in lung cancer patients in Spain, who then received erlotinib (Tarceva).

This week’s New England Journal of Medicine includes not one but two seminal publications on EGFR mutation status, response to EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) and sequencing of therapy in advanced NSCLC.

This slide presentation is the second part of a lecture I gave at the Seattle-based non-profit Cancer Lifeline a few months ago. This covers the evidence supporting post-operative (adjuvant) chemotherapy for patients with early stage NSCLC, the need to recognize that this does not apply to all patients who have undergone surgery, and the emerging clinical research and ongoing trials that may lead to improvements in our cure rate for early stage NSCLC patients in the future.

Hi again! You can think of this as a companion piece to my last post, examining some recent (but admittedly preliminary) evidence suggesting that Iressa (gefitinib) and Tarceva (erlotinib) may not be equivalent for patients with differing types of EGFR mutations. This is a slightly different topic, but one that has been quite contentious for several years: do KRAS mutations, found in 20% or more of patients with NSCLC, identify a group of patients who are resistant to EGFR inhibitors?

Last year I highlighted a research program out of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in NYC that has been trying to identify molecular genetic factors in never-smokers who develop lung cancer that can help provide explanations and even perhaps a better sense of why anyone, including smokers, may be at higher risk for developing lung cancer than others.

The most expert lung cancer pathologists in the world are planning a revision of the classification of lung adenocarcinomas that is expected to be approved and implemented next year, and it's going to make some big changes. Specifically, it's planning to eliminate the diagnosis of bronchioloalveolar carcinoma (BAC), reflecting our evolving understanding of this disease.

Hi all! I had to take a month off in July as I was forgetting what my family looked like, but am now refreshed and ready to talk (write, really) about more interesting topics in the field of lung cancer. I just returned from the World Conference on Lung Cancer in San Francisco, where Drs. West, Sanborn, and I enjoyed some great foo… I mean, learned a great deal about what is happening in the world of lung cancer.

With special thanks to the support of the Lung Cancer Connection and longtime member and friend of GRACE Myrtle Chidester, I am very happy to offer a new video podcast presentation on one of the most controversial and interesting areas of lung cancer management. Stage IIIA NSCLC with N2 mediastinal node involvement generates debates among the experts as well as at local hospital tumor boards everywhere, on a weekly basis.