Several weeks ago, my colleagues Dr. Tom Hensing from North Shore Health System in Chicago, affiliated with the University of Chicago, and Dr. David Jackman from Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, were kind enough to take the time to go over a series of cases in a webinar format. We reviewed the time line of several patients with advanced NSCLC, focusing on two central questions:

1) For various clinical situations, which molecular markers would you be inclined to recommend?

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.

It was nearly three years ago when the results of a randomized phase III trial of the chemotherapy agent Javlor (vinflunine) compared with standard second line Taxotere (and its proven survival benefit in previously treated advanced NSCLC), both drugs given IV every three weeks.

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.

[powerpress]

Over the past several months the topic of so-called maintenance therapy in advanced NSCLC has been one of the most timely and controversy questions in lung cancer. We've had posts here covering a trial testing immediate vs.

At ASCO a little over a month ago we learned the preliminary results of the SATURN trial that compared "maintenance" Tarceva (erlotinib), the oral EGFR inhibitor, to an oral placebo in patients who showed no progression after four cycles of first line chemotherapy.

Maintenance therapy for advanced non-small cell lung cancer was certainly the big theme this year in the lung cancer presentations. Let's start with the Alimta data. Dr. West has outlined earlier results of this study after this data was presented at the 2008 ASCO meeting.

The ASCO meeting I'm at right now is so busy that there really isn't time to write a new post (though I'm still "tweeting from the meeting"). Though the talk show hows just air re-runs of old shows when they're on vacation, I'm trying to continue to add new content to the website during this time (and it's about as far from a vacation as anyone has in Orlando).

The ASCO meeting I'm at right now is so insanely busy during the days and nights that it's next to impossible to carve out the time to write posts during the meeting. While the talk show hosts just show re-runs while they're on vacation, we're at least going to put up some new content, even if it's from work previously done (and this is far from a vacation).