Lung Cancer

Surgery, specifically a lobectomy or possibly pneumonectomy, has been the longtime historical standard of care for fit patients with early-stage, operable non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

A Japanese study of squamous cell carcinoma showed value in nedaplatin vs cisplatin/Taxotere (docetaxel). But with differences in how Asian versus Caucasian patients metabolize chemotherapy, can we presume this benefit would exist for everyone?

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A trial studying Cometriq (cabozantinib) for RET rearrangements showed a promising response rate, which led the doctors to discuss if they think RET is going to be the next actionable target in lung cancer.

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A trial comparing Tarceva (erlotinib) to Cometriq (cabozantinib) showed modest benefit for EGFR wild type patients, but the challenging side effect profile should lead us to question if we can identify only patients most likely to benefit from Cometriq.

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Squamous cell carcinoma patients have limited options. Data presented at ASCO 2015 showed positive patient outcomes with Gilotrif (afatinib) vs Tarceva (erlotinib), but some feel that there is little value in a treatment with only modestly better results.

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The current standard of care for SCLC shows limited results with high toxicities. Drs. Soria, Gandhi, and West discuss new ASCO 2015 data that show promise for a subset of patients with PD-L1 expression on Keytruda (pembrolizumab) or Opdivo (nivolumab).

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Guest post by Dr. Nate Pennell, a board certified medical oncologist at the Taussig Cancer Center at the Cleveland Clinic. He specializes in the treatment of thoracic malignancies with a focus on lung cancer. Dr.

As more immunotherapeutics become available to treat lung cancer, research must determine how to balance efficacy, toxicities, and cost. That means finding which patients who will benefit from which drugs while maintaining good quality of life.

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Novel immunotherapy agent atezolizumab (MPDL3280A) looks superior to Taxotere (docetaxel) in a study, specifically for patients with PD-L1. What are the implications of multiple agents with similar mechanisms of action in the same clinical settings?

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The immune checkpoint inhibitor Opdivo (nivolumab) shows better efficacy than Taxotere (docetaxel) for advanced non-squamous NSCLC, but this was seen only in patients with PD-L1 protein expression on their tumor. Should we be using this as a biomarker?

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