Lung Cancer

The concept of "over-treatment" of lung cancer may sound heretical to some here, as it is unquestionably a fearsome cancer. Nevertheless, it's important to recognize that cancers can range from quite indolent to virulently aggressive and that some forms may be so minimally threatening that treatment may be worse than the disease.

Dr. Edward Garon, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, covers the results and implications of the MADeIT phase III randomized study of predictive biomarkers ERCC1 and RRM1 in advanced NSCLC.

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Dr. Edward Garon, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, reviews the landmark Biomarkers France study that tested a wide range of molecular markers in NSCLC.

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Dr. David Gerber, University of Texas-Southwestern, discusses the key results and potential implications of the CALGB 30504 trial of maintenance sunitinib for extensive stage SCLC.

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Dr. David Gerber, University of Texas-Southwestern, reviews the results of the PROSE study of the Veristrat serum proteomics test to predict benefit of chemo or EGFR inhibitor for second line treatment of advanced lung cancer.

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Dr. David Gerber, University of Texas-Southwestern, discusses results of two important trials of maintenance therapy in advanced NSCLC, including the PRONOUNCE trial and POINTBREAK trials.

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Dr. Rosalyn Juergens, McMaster University, provides her perspective on the likelihood that molecular oncology principles and targeted therapies will become more broadly applicable for other LC subtypes.

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For our upcoming lung cancer tweetchat (hashtag #lcsm) on Thursday, August 22nd at 8 PM Eastern, 5 PM Pacific, we're going to be covering the important topic of costs of cancer drugs and procedures, how that's affecting patient care, whether pricing is fair, and whether there is a sense of value in the drugs and treatments being offered.

With the recent approval of afatinib, now becoming commercially available as Gilotrif, there is the potential new strategy for patients with an EGFR mutation who develop acquired resistance to a different EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) in an earlier line of therapy.

Dr. David Gerber, University of Texas-Southwestern, reviews a Swiss study comparing tri-modality therapy with chemoradiation followed by surgery to chemo followed by surgery for stage IIIA NSCLC.

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