Lung Cancer

Patients treated with first-line ceritinib had a 45% reduction in the risk for progression of advanced ALK-positive NSCLC compared with chemotherapy.

In this slide show we highlight some of the top news on lung cancer in 2016, including an immunotherapy approval from the FDA, and studies on depression in lung cancer patients, serious side effects to watch for when using immunotherapies, and more.

An updated prognostic tool incorporating gene alteration data could help guide clinical management of patients with non–small-cell lung cancer.

Cabozantinib alone or in combination with erlotinib improved survival outcomes among patients with advanced EGFR wild-type non–small-cell lung cancer.

Researchers at UC San Francisco have recently discovered genetic mutations in a protective protein called Capicua (CIC). The scientists demonstrated that there is a disproportionate frequency of mutated CIC in human lung cancers that have metastasized.

At the 11th Annual New York Lung Cancer Symposium, held on November 12, 2016, in New York City, Roman Perez-Soler, MD, spoke about what is currently understood about resistance to EGFR-targeted therapies and how to treat this population of patients.

Speaking at the 11th Annual New York Lung Cancer Symposium, held on November 12, 2016, in New York City, Howard (Jack) West, MD, medical director of the thoracic oncology program at the Swedish Cancer Institute in Seattle, laid out the available treatment options for patients with treatment-naïve, EGFR-positive NCSLC cancer.

This review highlights those efforts and the role of minimally invasive surgery for early-stage lung cancer in light of evolving technology, the emerging understanding of the biology of early-stage lung cancer, and lung cancer screening.

Patients with ALK-rearranged NSCLC treated with brigatinib showed promising response rates in both crizotinib-treated and crizotinib-naive patients.

Lung resection is gaining momentum among thoracic surgeons because it allows the operating surgeon the convenience of performing a dissection that in many ways is similar to open surgery, yet that has the advantages of a minimally invasive approach. Hopefully, surgical robotics, along with VATS, will make it possible for the thoracic surgery community to offer minimally invasive lung resection to nearly all early-stage lung cancer patients.

Today, we are speaking with Dr. Alexander Drilon, a medical oncologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City who specializes in treating patients with lung cancer. Dr. Drilon recently spoke at the New York Lung Cancer Symposium held on November 12th on three relatively new molecular drug targets for lung cancer.

A new study looking at PD-L1 expression lung cancer tissue has found that the SP142 assay shows significantly lower levels of PD-L1 expression compared with other available tests.

This Medical News Minute outlines efforts by a number of advocacy groups and medical associations urging the CMS to abandon proposed reimbursement cuts to low-dose CT screening for lung cancer.

I currently have a 68-year-old patient with EGFR-mutated adenocarcinoma of the lung, who presented with metastatic disease to the brain, liver, and bone in late 2014.

The addition of selumetinib to docetaxel failed to improve progression-free and overall survival in patients with KRAS-mutated locally advanced or metastatic NSCLC.

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved atezolizumab (Tecentriq®, Genentech) for treating chemotherapy-refractory, metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), Genentech announced.

Adding pembrolizumab (Keytruda) to first-line chemotherapy improves response and survival rates among patients with previously-untreated advanced PD-L1-positive non-small cell lung cancer.

The use of the PD1 inhibitor nivolumab appeared to be feasible and safe in a small study of patients with untreated, stage I–IIIa non–small-cell lung cancer.

Patients diagnosed with early-stage lung cancer who are also diagnosed with depression have an increased risk of mortality, according to a prospective, observational study.

The US Food and Drug Administration has approved a plasma sample label extention for the T790M companion diagnostic blood test, cobas® Mutation Test v2.

Combining two cancer immunotherapies to target both the interleukin 10 (IL-10) and programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) receptors has yielded promising early results for some patients with renal cell carcinoma and non-small cell lung cancer.

Researchers in Texas are now reporting they have developed drug-loaded synthetic nanoparticles that can distinguish lung cancer cells from healthy cells.

A 34-year-old woman presents with a coin lesion in the right upper lobe of the lung. What is your diagnosis?

US soldiers and veterans will be at the forefront of a new nationwide integrated proteogenomic lung tumor screening program aimed at boosting enrollment in clinical trials and hastening the development of targeted anticancer therapies.

Although the overall incidence of programmed cell death 1 (PD-1) inhibitor-related pneumonitis is rare, the serious adverse event may occur more commonly in certain solid tumor types like non–small-cell lung cancer and renal cell carcinoma.

Researchers from China have discovered a way to offset the brain complications of leptomeningeal metastases in patients with non-small cell lung cancer.

Automated computer analysis of pathology slide images can more accurately predict lung cancer patient prognosis than can human pathologists, according to researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine.

In a phase III trial, Opdivo (nivolumab) did not meet its primary endpoint, a disappointment to researchers and patients.

Immune checkpoint inhibitors have changed the treatment paradigm for patients with lung cancer, bringing about the most promising outcomes we have seen in a long time.

Immune checkpoint inhibitors are a reality for the treatment of patients with NSCLC, and if approved for SCLC, would be a treatment breakthrough we have not seen for decades.