Lung Cancer

Matthew Steliga, MD, discusses key surgical updates in lung cancer and the shifting role of surgery with the emergence of novel therapies.

Lyudmila A. Bazhenova, MD, medical oncologist, professor of clinical medicine, University of California, San Diego, discusses new developments in RET-rearranged non–small cell lung cancer.

Heather A. Wakelee, MD, professor of medicine (oncology), Stanford University Medical Center, discusses osimertinib and its role in treating patients with EGFR-mutant non–small cell lung cancer.

With the arrival of immunotherapy to the small cell lung cancer armamentarium, combination approaches with targeted therapies are now in the pipeline to stimulate further clinical activity, such as adding PARP or CHK1 inhibitors.

The magnitude of data becoming available on immunotherapy combinations for patients with non–small cell lung cancer has made treatment selection complicated.

The early potential shown with the KRAS inhibitor AMG 510 coupled with several promising ongoing combination studies has ushered in the beginning of an exciting era for the treatment of KRAS-mutant non–small cell lung cancer.

The frontline standard of care for patients with EGFR-mutant non–small cell lung cancer remains an EGFR TKI, most commonly osimertinib in the United States.

The future generation of agents in lung cancer should be evaluated in improved predictive biomarker-driven trials to identify patients who are most likely to benefit or have detriment for both TKIs and checkpoint inhibitors.

Karen L. Reckamp, MD, MS, discusses pivotal findings with the highly selective MET inhibitors, tepotinib and capmatinib in patients with MET exon 14-altered advanced non–small cell lung cancer.

There is a growing need to share information across research settings and the community, with the rapid introduction of new biomarkers, cancer detection strategies, immunotherapies, and targeted therapies. This synchronization of system biology tool datasets could help create a new digital ecosystem focused on precision medicine.

Optimizing the methods for preclinical research with an emphasis on patient-derived models, may help speed up the translation of new treatment advances from the laboratory to the clinic.

Mollie Meek, MD, highlights key lung cancer screening trials, offered insight into how to successfully implement an effective program, and stressed that collaboration is critical in order to provide the best patient care.

Although immunotherapy has become an important modality for treating non–small cell lung cancer, the development of new strategies for targeting oncogenic drivers of disease in subgroups of patients is moving forward at a brisk pace.