Finley Highlights His Hopes for Future SCLC Treatment Options

Gene G. Finley, MD, a medical oncologist at Allegheny Clinic Medical Oncology of Allegheny Health Network, discusses some of the treatment options that have been used in the small cell lung cancer (SCLC) space, including intensive chemotherapies and targeted agents.

While a number of targeted drugs have been evaluated in the past few years for patients with SCLC, many studies have fallen flat and not led to promising results.

In the early 2000s, Finley notes that there was a study in which investigators compared irinotecan and platinum with the etoposide and platinum regimen. This study was ultimately positive as improvements in the overall survival were observed among those who received the irinotecan and platinum vs etoposide and platinum combination.

As a result, Finley is hopeful that the future treatment landscape for patients with SCLC will evolve and include new options. He also further discusses that the irinotecan formulation may be helpful in this patient population of individuals with SCLC as irinotecan has shown to have activity in this disease.

Transcription:

0:08 | In terms of other drugs, when you think about lung cancer generally, non–small cells have become the poster child for targeted therapy. A number of targeted drugs have been attempted in small cell lung cancer and have really fallen flat, as most single-agent chemotherapies have.

0:32 | We also tried using more intensive chemotherapy in the first-line setting and small cell lung cancer, and that was not helpful either. I'm hopeful that some of the newer targeted drugs and some of the antibody drug conjugates that are in development will ultimately be useful. I'm hoping that this irinotecan formulation will be helpful in small cell [lung cancer]. I have not used it yet, [however], I have certainly used the drug in the second-line setting, but that is off-label.