LUNG CANCER

During a <em>Targeted Oncology </em>live case-based peer perspectives presentation, Josephine Louella Feliciano, MD, explained the treatment considerations and decisions she makes when treating a patient with non&ndash;small cell lung cancer in the clinic and the data that support these options to a group of physicians.

The approval of the PD-L1 22C3 pharmDX assay has been expanded by the FDA to be used as a companion diagnostic for identifying more patients with stage III or metastatic&nbsp;non&ndash;small cell lung cancer who can undergo frontline treatment with pembrolizumab.

According to new findings, tumor mutational burden showed promise as a predictive biomarker for survival benefit in patients with advanced non&ndash;small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) treated with&nbsp;the PD-L1 inhibitor durvalumab (Imfinzi) as initial therapy versus chemotherapy,&nbsp;even though there was no difference seen between the 2 treatment groups in the primary analysis of the randomized trial.

Silvia C. Formenti, MD, discusses the advantages of radiation therapy in patients with lung cancer compared to other modalities.

Benjamin P. Levy, MD, recently discussed the treatment considerations and decisions he makes when treating patients with non&ndash;small cell lung cancer. Levy, the clinical director of medical oncology and associate professor of oncology at Johns Hopkins Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center at Sibley Memorial Hospital, revealed his treatment decisions to the group based on 2 case scenarios of patients with NSCLC that does not have a genetic driver.

Adding&nbsp;bevacizumab to erlotinib significantly improved&nbsp;progression-free survival compared with erlotinib&nbsp;alone in patients with <em>EGFR</em>-positive, advanced nonsquamous non&ndash;small cell lung cancer, suggesting the combination may have the potential to become standard of care for this patient population.

Suresh S. Ramalingam, MD, professor of hematology and medical oncology at the Emory University School of Medicine, discusses the challenge of brain metastases in <em>EGFR</em>-mutated lung cancer and the data surrounding osimertinib (Tagrisso) in this patient population.

Alexander Drilon, MD,&nbsp;discussed updated findings with larotrectinib in <em>NTRK</em> fusion&ndash;positive tumors and entrectinib in <em>ROS1</em> fusion&ndash;positive NSCLC.<br /> &nbsp;

The approval for&nbsp;pembrolizumab (Keytruda) has been expanded to include the&nbsp;frontline treatment of patients with stage III non&ndash;small cell lung cancer, who are ineligible for surgery or definitive chemoradiation, or metastatic NSCLC, with a PD-L1 expression level of &ge;1% and do not harbor <em>EGFR</em> or <em>ALK</em> aberrations.

Before a community oncology practice considers getting involved in clinical trials research, there are many factorsto consider. Perhaps foremost is the fact that cancer clinical trials provide the evidence base for new advances in oncology.&nbsp;

Artificial intelligence has made inroads in many industries&mdash;banking, finance, security&mdash;but its adoption in healthcare has been lagging and real-world clinical implementation has yet to become a reality. Nonetheless, proponents say it is only a matter of time and pilot programs are starting to yield some practical results.&nbsp;

Naiyer A. Rizvi, MD, explained, in a presentation at the European Society of Medical Oncology 2019 International Congress on Targeted Anticancer Therapies, that plasma assays for determining TMB are becoming more diagnostically relevant.

A look back at all the&nbsp;FDA news&nbsp;that happened in March 2019, including several new approvals, a clinical hold, an orphan drug designation, and more.

In findings presented during the 2019 AACR Annual Meeting, safety and efficacy was seen with CAR T cells targeting&nbsp;mesothelin-expressing tumors&nbsp;in a preliminary clinical evaluation in patients with malignant pleural disease.

Lurbinectedin (PM1183) monotherapy induced responses in patients with relapsed small cell lung cancer, achieving the primary endpoint of overall response rate in a single-arm phase II trial, according to an announcement from PharmaMar, the company developing lurbinectedin.

The FDA has approved the combination of&nbsp;atezolizumab plus carboplatin and etoposide&nbsp;as a first-line treatment for patients with extensive-stage small cell lung cancer.

Based on 2 case scenarios, H. Jack West, MD, discusses treatment options and the data that support these options for the management of squamous and nonsquamous non&ndash;small cell lung cancer.

The healthcare community is still awaiting a response from the Centers for Medicare &amp; Medicaid Services to the opposition of the agency&rsquo;s proposal to substantially revise the Medicare Part D protected drug classes.

During a <em>Targeted Oncology </em>live case-based peer perspectives presentation, Kartik Konduri, MD, recently discussed the treatment considerations and decisions he makes when treating patients with non&ndash;small cell lung cancer.

Robert L. Ferris, MD, PhD, Co-Physician Editor in Chief, <em>Targeted Therapies in Oncology</em>,<em>&nbsp;</em>discusses<em>&nbsp;</em>the<em>&nbsp;</em>evolving<em>&nbsp;</em>role of immunotherapy in melanoma and non&ndash;small cell lung cancer, where by it is now the dominant therapeutic approach in these diseases in progressively earlier lines of therapy.

Overtreating men 70 years or older with prostate cancer cost Medicare more than $1.2 billion from 2004 to 2007, according to the results of a retrospective study using the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results&ndash;Medicare linked database.

Progression-free survival, the primary endpoint of the RELAY trial,&nbsp;was significantly improved with frontline&nbsp;ramucirumab in combination with erlotinib compared to placebo plus erlotinib in patients with metastatic&nbsp;<em>EGFR</em>-mutant&nbsp;non&ndash;small cell lung cancer.

Due to an active research landscape, the National Comprehensive Cancer Network Guidelines for non&ndash;small cell lung cancer have had 3 recent updates that include numerous clinically relevant recommendations.

Julie R. Brahmer, MD, discusses data for atezolizumab plus platinum/etoposide versus platinum/etoposide alone in patients with small cell lung cancer in the IMpower133 trial.

Edward B. Garon, MD,&nbsp;discusses the role of EGFR-targeted therapies in the treatment landscape of NSCLC.

A look back at all the FDA news in oncology from the month of February 2019, including several new approvals, priority review designations, and an orphan drug desgination.

Guardant360&mdash;a 73-gene next-generation sequencing panel&mdash;detected all of the&nbsp;guideline-recommended biomarkers in patients newly diagnosed with&nbsp;metastatic non&ndash;small cell lung cancer at a similar rate, but in a faster turnaround time than&nbsp;tissue genotyping, according to data from the NILE study.