EGFR Exon 20-Positive NSCLC Prognosis and Challenges

Alexander Spira, MD, PhD, FACP, director of the Virginia Cancer Specialists, discusses the prognosis of patients with EGFR- exon 20 mutated non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

According to Spira, the prognosis is not as good as other EGFR mutations as there are no targeted therapies. The prognosis of this patient population is similar to that with EGFR wild type.

EGFR-exon 20 mutated NSCLC is treated just like any other lung cancer currently. It is an actionable mutation, and more therapies are needed in order to target it.

0:08 | The prognosis is clearly not as good as other EGFR mutations because there are no targeted therapies. So, it's clearly worse prognosis with an average length of diagnosis, probably similar to wild type patients without the new treatments that are coming.

0:25 | The challenge is before we get some drugs that we are hopefully going to have approved soon, is that it is just treated like other lung cancers. So, we know there's a targeted mutation. And it's been very frustrating because you have a targeted mutation, but you couldn't act on it. So, the hope is that, obviously with some new treatments, we'll be able to change that significantly because were being teased for our patients that we know there's something there, but you can't do