One of the high profile presentations in the lung cancer track at ASCO 2014 was from Dr. James Yang of a pooled analysis of the LUX-Lung 3 and LUX-Lung 6 trials, each comparing Gilotrif (afatinib) to standard chemotherapy as first line treatment of EGFR mutation-positive advanced NSCLC, which for the first time demonstrated an actual survival benefit not seen in similarly designed trials with Iressa (gefitinib) or Tarceva (erlotinib).

Dr. Geoffrey Oxnard of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute describes what research indicates may be more successful treatments for EGFR lung cancer patients.

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Every year, many of the most important developments in cancer care are presented at ASCO. This year, we've got what I think is a very important year in lung cancer, with several practice-changing results/.

This is a slide presentation I did last week at a local conference, describing the steady, incremental improvements in survival with advanced/metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) that have occurred over the past 10-15 years.

This past week, I saw a new patient who had just moved from another part of the country and needed long-term management of her high risk lung cancer.  A never-smoking Asian woman, she was found to have a stage IIIA lung cancer with "N2" mediastinal lymph nodes involving cancer in her mid-chest.

With the recent approval of afatinib, now becoming commercially available as Gilotrif, there is the potential new strategy for patients with an EGFR mutation who develop acquired resistance to a different EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) in an earlier line of therapy.

Dr. Phil Bonomi, from Rush University, describes the generations of EGFR inhibitors beginning with Gefitinib (Iressa).

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Afatinib, newly christened Gilotrif, is the newest EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) approved by the FDA, specifically for patients with an EGFR mutation as first line therapy.

Earlier this week, the FDA approved the oral epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) Tarceva (erlotinib) for the approximately 10% of advanced NSCLC patients with an activating EGFR mutation in North America and Europe (approximately 30% in Asia).

Here is the first of the awaited podcasts from Dr. Natasha Leighl's presentation on "Highlights in Lung Cancer from 2012".  Dr.