Lung Cancer

Despite a reasonable expectation that expression of HER3 and its ligand heregulin would be predictive biomarkers for HER3-targeted therapy, their usefulness in clinical trials has been hit-and-miss. Nevertheless, investigators have persevered, and new types of drugs have largely supplanted the first generation in clinical trials.

Roy S. Herbst, MD, PhD, discusses research regarding immunotherapy and accompanying biomarkers in non–small cell lung cancer.

Investigators hope selpercatinib (LOXO-292), a highly selective RET inhibitor, will demonstrate potential as a new standard of care for patients with advanced or metastatic treatment-naïve RET fusion–positive non–small cell lung cancer in the phase III LIBRETTO-431 (NCT04194944) trial.

The addition of dinutuximab injection to irinotecan did not improve overall survival compared with irinotecan or topotecan alone in patients with relapsed/refractory small cell lung cancer, missing the primary endpoint of the phase II/III DISTINCT trial.

Bristol-Myers Squibb has withdrawn its application in the European Union for the frontline combination of nivolumab and ipilimumab as a treatment for patients with advanced non–small cell lung cancer.

Immune checkpoint inhibitors have yielded modest improvement in small cell lung cancer (SCLC), but have already reshaped the management of this tumor type and helped open the door to the exploration of other, potentially more effective treatment approaches, according to a panel of thoracic oncology experts who discussed the treatment horizon for SCLC in a recent OncLive Peer Exchange® panel.

Ashish Saxena, MD, PhD, discusses the future of next-generation ALK inhibitors in non–small cell lung cancer.

Ashish Saxena, MD, PhD, discusses available next-generation ALK inhibitors in non–small cell lung cancer.

Julia Rotow, MD, discusses remaining questions with brigatinib in ALK-positive non­–small cell lung cancer.

Julia Rotow, MD, discusses the implications of next-generation ALK inhibitors in non–small cell lung cancer.

Julia Rotow, MD, discusses the utility of brigatinib versus crizotinib for the first-line treatment of patients with ALK-positive non

Alexander Drilon, MD, discusses the utility of brigatinib in ALK-positive non–small cell lung cancer.

Thomas E. Stinchcombe, MD, discusses the results of the randomized phase III ALTA-1L trial in ALK-positive non–small cell lung cancer.

Although PD-L1 expression is the most established yardstick of response to immune checkpoint immunotherapy, its clinical utility as a biomarker remains an enigma further complicated by the variety of assays and algorithms for measuring it.

Justin F. Gainor, MD, discusses a neoadjuvant use of biomarkers in nonmetastatic lung cancer.

The FDA has scheduled an Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee hearing for February 26, 2020, to discuss data supporting a supplemental biologics license application for intravenous ramucirumab injection for use in combination with erlotinib in the frontline treatment of patients with metastatic non–small cell lung cancer whose tumors harbor EGFR Ex19del or Ex21 substitution mutations.

The FDA has granted a priority review designation to a new drug application for selpercatinib (LOXO-292) for the treatment of patients with advanced RET fusion–positive non–small cell lung cancer, RET-mutant medullary thyroid cancer, and RET fusion–positive thyroid cancer.

Lecia V. Sequist, MD, MPH, and Zofia Piotrowska, MD, MHS, give their input on how they approach cases that are often encountered in clinic.