GRACE is happy to present the 4th video in our series ASCO 2016 Lung Cancer Roundtable, Highlights and New Approaches in Lung Cancer.  Featuring Jack West, MD, Janet Freeman-Daily, Everett Vokes, MD, and Suresh Ramalingam, MD, this roundtable discussion, moderated by Dr. West, highlights the newest and most intriguing discussions from ASCO 2016.

There is a principle in management of lung cancer that some patients who have a very limited degree of metastatic disease or progression after a good response may do unusually well with local treatment, such as radiation or surgery, for the isolated area(s) of disease that are metastatic or growing.

Dr. Rosalyn Juergens, McMaster University, explains her approach to management of acquired resistance to targeted therapies in patients with a "driver mutation" and respond well initially to treatment.

[powerpress]

I've mentioned in posts in the past about the settings in which local therapy might be appropriate for someone even when we know the cancer is advanced/metastatic.  Here's a brief video that discusses some of these issues, including a situation in which the local treatment isn't specifically aimed at addressing a symptom, as is the usual reason for treating with local therapy for metastatic cancer, but is rather what I'd consider the "Get the Lead Runner" strategy:

[powerpress]

I'm interested in your thoughts.

Good morning, GRACErs.

Plenary

With all this recent talk about never-smokers with lung cancer, and the interest in stories of patients with so-called “oligometastatic” cancer (minimal metastatic burden to perhaps a single site), I thought I would describe a recent case in my clinic as an illustration of how I use this information in everyday decision making. Mrs. D, a very fit 36 year-old woman with a young child at home, presented to her family doctor last year with back pain. It didn’t seem to be getting better, so her doctor ordered an x-ray of the back which showed a very nasty-looking spot in the lower spine.