Here's the second talk from our recent webinar, partnering with LUNGevity Foundation to cover the ASCO Highlights in Lung Cancer, and this talk followed after

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.

Our practice in managing advanced NSCLC has been evolving rapidly as new studies emerge highlighting the importance of molecular markers in guiding treatment decisions and leave open questions about how to optimize the sequence of treatments from first line to second line, who to observe and who to recommend for maintenance therapy. And if maintenance therapy, what treatment to recommend?

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).

We learned several months ago that the ATLAS trial of maintenance Avastin (bevacizumab) with either Tarceva (erlotinib) or placebo did not demonstrate a significant improvement in overall survival (OS) with Tarceva, despite the fact that it was associated with an improvement in progres

Dr. Mark Socinski, international leader in the field of lung cancer, from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, gave a terrific presentation on timing and selection of treatment after the first line setting for advanced NSCLC. In addition to the podcast of his presentation itself, here now is the question and answer session that followed it.

The Q&A portion includes slides with the questions as well as some slides that illustrate key points. Below, you'll find the audio and video versions of the podcast, the figures, and also the transcript of the program.

I'm very pleased to offer the podcast materials for the recent webinar by Dr. Mark Socinski, medical oncologist and leader of the excellent Thoracic Oncology Program at the University of North Carolina, in Chapel Hill. He's been a long-time leader of the entire field of lung cancer for many years, and he's among the best at synthesizing new information into a cogent perspective.

Here is the audio and video versions of the podcast, along with the figures and transcript that go with the program.

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Here's a webinar case discussion I did with Drs. Julie Brahmer from Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, and Greg Riely from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York. They're great thoracic oncologists as wellas friends, and they were kind enough to join me for discussion of several complex cases that don't have clear answers and illustrate the reality that even when we know the evidence, there's plenty of room for judgment.

This past weekend, I had the unenviable task of debating my friend Dr. Nasser Hanna, from Indiana University and a highly respected leader in lung cancer, about maintenance therapy.