Rationale for Evaluating Ceritinib in ALK-Positive Patients With NSCLC
Laura Quan Man Chow, MD, FRCPC, discusses the rationale for evaluating ceritinib in patients with <em>ALK</em>-positive non–small cell lung cancer in the ASCEND-7 trial.
Laura Quan Man Chow, MD, FRCPC, director of the Thoracic, Head and Neck Cancer, and Clinical Immunotherapy Programs, and associate cancer center director for clinical research, The University of Texas at Austin, discusses the rationale for evaluating ceritinib (Zykadia) in patients withALK-positive nonsmall cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in the ASCEND-7 trial.
This phase II clinical trial was 1 of the first studies dedicated to investigating the activity of a targeted agent in the brain, as well as to measure and assess the brain activity, says Chow. It is particularly common for patients withALK-positive patients with NSCLC to experience progression in the brain and develop brain metastases overtime. When the ALK tyrosine kinase inhibitors were first developed, investigators noted great activity with crizotinib (Xalkori), for example, but progression still tended to occur in these patients due to an acquired resistance.
