Dr. Alan Sandler, Oregon Health and Science University, considers the various options for maintenance therapy as well as a potential treatment break after first line treatment of advanced non-small cell lung cancer.

[powerpress]

The first of several podcasts we'll be adding here from our ASCO 2012 Lung Cancer Highlights program, co-sponsored with LUNGevity Foundation, is with Dr. Mark Socinski, Professor at the University of Pittsburgh, who discussed the updated results of continuation maintenance therapy with Alimta (pemetrexed) on the PARAMOUNT trial.

Last year, the PARAMOUNT trial was one of the highlight presentations in lung cancer from ASCO 2011, an important landmark study of continuation maintenance therapy with Alimta (pemetrexed).

The third and final part of my conversation with Drs. Tom Hensing from North Shore Health System in Chicago and David Jackman from Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston covered a presentation of an Asian never-smoking woman with an advanced lung adenocarcinoma, the demographic picture most closely associated with potentially but not necessarily having an EGFR mutation or ALK rearrangement.

The second part of my conversation with Drs. Tom Hensing from North Shore Health System in Chicago and David Jackman from Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston covered a case of a relatively young, generally healthy woman diagnosed with a lung adenocarcinoma that turned out to be stage IV.

A lot of new data have emerged over the last 2-3 years that have addressed the concept of "maintenance therapy" for patients with advanced NSCLC (see Dr. Socinski's excellent podcast for a general review).