Lung Cancer

Researchers have found a novel cellular mechanism that determines resistance to various targeted cancer therapies and several different cancers. The gene may be a key biomarker that could predict responses and provide better strategies to treat drug-resistant cancers.

Genotyping, sometimes referred to as molecular fingerprinting, must be distinguished from genetic testing. Genotyping is done to tumor samples and tests genes in the malignancy only.

This second article in our two-part series on targeted therapies in solid tumors covers the emergence of targeted therapies for the treatment of two common malignancies: lung cancer and breast cancer.

A phase II trial and a pooled analysis with another study found no benefit to adding carboplatin to pemetrexed versus pemetrexed alone in previously treated patients with advanced non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

A significant portion of patients with incurable lung cancer believe that palliative radiation therapy will cure the disease or at least help them live longer, according to a new study. Only about one-third of patients acknowledged that the treatment was not at all likely to cure their cancer.

The rarity and heterogeneity of these tumors limits research and obviates the possibility of large randomized clinical trials. Surgery remains the mainstay of treatment, but often radiotherapy and/or chemotherapy is required. The role of neoadjuvant therapy is evolving. In the not too distant future, new therapies tailored to the molecular profile of the tumor will be available.

Thymomas are uncommon neoplasms that have generated considerable controversy among pathologists. The following questions can be used to evaluate the evidence supporting current concepts about the pathology of thymomas and the clinical applicability of those concepts.

This review considers the status of the different histological classifications thus far presented for thymomas and offers an analysis of the association between histology and clinical behavior.

Stereotactic body radiation therapy is being compared to standard surgery in a phase III trial in high-risk operable patients with early-stage non–small-cell lung cancer.

A recent study profiling the genetic details of 178 lung squamous cell carcinomas yielded a clearer picture of the mutations that characterize the disease, and potentially revealed therapeutic targets.

Maintenance therapy with both gemcitabine and erlotinib improved progression-free survival in patients with non–small-cell lung cancer who were initially treated with cisplatin-gemcitabine induction chemotherapy, according to a new phase III trial.

For the first time, two research groups have sequenced and analyzed the genomes of small-cell lung cancer (SCLC) and identified new gene mutatations that could drive the development of new therapies and the application of existing ones.

The presence of a mutation in the KRAS gene in patients with advanced lung adenocarcinomas was associated with significantly shorter overall survival than patients without the mutation, according to a new study.

A new phase III trial found that first-line erlotinib followed by chemotherapy at disease progression to be significantly inferior to the standard practice of first-line cisplatin-gemcitabine followed by erlotinib.

Lung cancer remains the leading cause of cancer death in the United States, with only 16% of patients living 5 years or more after they are diagnosed.

Chemotherapy is now employed in earlier-stage disease in neoadjuvant, adjuvant, and combined-modality treatments. The aim of this article is to review the current systemic treatments for NSCLC.

Lung cancer remains the number one cancer killer in both men and women, with more deaths attributable to lung cancer than breast, prostate, and colorectal cancers combined.[1]

In the pre–ALK-inhibitor era, patients with advanced ALK-positive NSCLC had significantly worse survival outcomes compared with ALK-wild type patients, according to a recent study.

The addition of the multi-tyrosine kinase inhibitor sorafenib to a gemcitabine/cisplatin regimen failed to improve overall survival among patients with advanced nonsquamous non-small-cell lung cancer, according to a new randomized phase III trial.

In this issue of ONCOLOGY, Drs. Lim and Lin present a comprehensive and up-to-date review of the basic biology of breast cancer brain metastasis (BCBM) and of emerging strategies for treating this increasingly common complication of advanced breast cancer (BC) (BC is second only to non–small-cell lung cancer in the frequency of central nervous system [CNS] metastasis.)

Young women in Southern and Midwestern states have seen death rates from lung cancer decline more slowly than elsewhere in the country, or even increase, over the last several decades, according to a new study.

New research now suggests that targeting AXL kinase could reduce the resistance to EGFR-targeted tyrosine kinase inhibition, and allow further response to EGFR-targeted therapies in lung cancer.

Cancer Network presents an exclusive interview with Joel W. Neal, MD, PhD, who discusses some of the most important information to come out of this year’s meeting and talks about the future of lung cancer research.

In patients with advanced NSCLC and without any mutation in the EGFR gene, docetaxel provides significantly improved progression-free survival compared to erlotinib, according to a phase III randomized trial.

Final results of the PARAMOUNT study in non-squamous non–small-cell lung cancer confirmed improved survival with continuation pemetrexed maintenance therapy.

The idea of adding the targeted EGFR inhibitor cetuximab to standard chemotherapy took a hit, as results from the SELECT phase III trial showed no improvement in efficacy when cetuximab was combined with pemetrexed in patients with recurrent or progressive non–small-cell lung cancer.

Patients with EGFR mutation-positive lung cancer had improved progression-free survival and better quality of life with new drug afatinib than with standard chemotherapy, according to results from a large phase III trial.

The use of fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (FDG-PET), for diagnosing lung cancer may have to be rethought. According to an analysis of data from a national prospective trial, FDG-PET has substantially lower sensitivity and specificity than in previously published studies.

The debate over screening for lung cancer continues. While there have been many advances in treatment for late-stage disease, screening and prevention are likely the most cost effective and best approaches to preventing lung cancer deaths.

Treatment of patients with locally advanced or metastatic non–small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) that is anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK)-positive as detected by an FDA-approved test.