Fast forward 1.5 years, and we now have the early results of LUX-Lung-7, and they show that these EGFR TKIs are not completely interchangeable...

Drs. Leora Horn, Ben Solomon, & Jack West discuss the open question of whether there are clinically significant differences among leading EGFR tyrosine kinases based on the specific EGFR mutation to be treated.

MSKCC medical oncologist Dr. Greg Riely reviews the optimal first line treatment of patients with an EGFR mutation-positive advanced lung cancer.

Dr. Greg Riely, medical oncologist from MSKCC, considers the evidence on whether there are clinically significant differences among the currently available first and second generation oral EGFR inhibitors for patients with an EGFR mutation.

Medical oncologist Dr. Greg Riely, MSKCC, discusses evidence for whether there are clinically significant differences among specific EGFR mutations that should lead to differences in management.

Dr. Greg Riely from MSKCC provides an introduction to the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), what an EGFR mutation means, and which patients are more likely to have them.

Dr. Jack West, medical oncologist, reviews evidence in favor of adding Avastin (bevacizumab) to the EGFR inhibitor Tarceva (erlotinib) for patients with lung cancer that harbors an activating EGFR mutation.

It's been a decade since EGFR gene mutations were first identified as highly correlated with a high probability of response to EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) like Iressa (gefitinib) and Tarceva (erlotinib), and more recently Gilotrif (afatinib).

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).

I recently had the honor of providing the expert commentary at the ASCO 2014 conference on three high impact lung cancer presentations, all on the subject of treatment options for molecularly defined populations (EGFR and ALK). I'll review the findings from these three abstracts and my perspective on each of these, starting with a very provocative presentation by Dr.