Drs. Ben Solomon, Leora Horn, & Jack West discuss whether the data highlighting cognitive deficits from whole brain radiation therapy (WBRT) for patients with brain metastases should change our recommendations for prophylactic cranial irradiation (PCI).

Drs. Leora Horn, Ben Solomon, & Jack West debate whether results from a European trial of chest radiation after chemotherapy for extensive stage small cell lung cancer should lead to a change in treatment for this setting.

Why radiate a perfectly good brain? Dr. Vivek Mehta, radiation oncologist, discusses the possible role for prophylactic cranial irradiation (PCI) for extensive stage small cell lung cancer (SCLC) to decrease risk of brain metastases and improve survival.

Though there are many presentations to discuss in the wake of ASCO, we'll need to pace ourselves on these. I and some of the other faculty members will offer thoughts on some of these in the coming weeks, and we also have our upcoming post-ASCO review on June 23rd (click here to learn more and sign up for this free online program).

Here is the discussion about the study of picoplatin vs. placebo for relapsed SCLC, from the post-ASCO review that I did with Dr. Pennell. Unfortunately, this work was an overall disappointment, not quite beating placebo in a setting for which we already have a more active alternative. Here's the transcript and figures from that portion of the discussion.

=======================================

This is the second of two parts in the Reference Library by Dr. Gadgeel on small cell lung cancer.

Patients with Limited Stage Small Cell Lung Cancer

Here is the last case I discussed several months ago with Dr. Nasser Hanna, lung cancer expert at Indiana University. After two cases that included never or light former smokers, which he joked that I saw far more of than he did, we changed direction to cover current issues in managing extensive stage small cell lung cancer, a field in which he's been a leader.

==============================================================

A few weeks ago, I received an email from a colleague at an affiliated hospital with the title, “Another one bites the dust.” Now I love Queen as much as the next guy, but I don’t like seeing this line in reference to new oncology drugs. In this case, the drug was picoplatin.

The development of targeted therapy drugs has improved survival for patients with NSCLC, and the “pipeline” of agents in development awaiting further testing in clinical trials seems to be increasing by the day. The improvements in survival in particular subpopulations of patients with NSCLC inspires both patients and physicians who treat lung cancer to hope that similar gains may be made, perhaps incrementally, for patients in all subpopulations of NSCLC.

I recently had the opportunity to sit down with Dr. Toni Wozniak, Moedical Oncologist and lung cancer expert at the Barbara A. Karmanos Cancer Center at Wayne State University in Detroit, MI. We covered several topics, including SCLC, the subject of this podcast. It is an audio interview but includes a few figures that are synchronized with the audio on the video version, or you can download the pdf of the figures and just follow along with the audio.

[powerpress]