Treatment Options in MET-Mutant NSCLC

Mark G. Kris, MD, the William and Joy Ruane Chair in Thoracic Oncology in Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, discusses treatment options forMET-mutant non—small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

Evidence shows that patients with high levels ofMETamplification can be treated with drugs that target the MET kinase. The occurrence ofMETis common in the smoking patient population. The Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, according to Kris, sees as manyMETmutations asALKalterations. Kris suggests performing next-generation sequencing on every patient with NSCLC upon diagnosis to findMETmutations among other biomarkers.

There are a few drugs available that are effective in treatingMET-mutant NSCLC. Currently, the standard of care is crizotinib (Xalkori), but preliminary research shows that other drugs, including capmatinib, savolitinib, and tepotinib, have better degrees of benefit and tolerability compared with crizotinib. Kris believes these drugs will eventually be approved by the FDA and become the new standards of care for patients withMET