Lung Cancer

Although nivolumab has demonstrated a clear survival advantage compared with chemotherapy in patients with progressive non–small cell lung cancer who express PD-L1 in their tumor cells, the same cannot be said for those who are PD-L1–negative.

Joel Neal, MD, PhD, assistant professor of Medicine (Oncology), Stanford University Medical Center, discusses what immunotherapy combinations oncologists are currently using in the treatment of patients with lung cancer.

Vamsidhar Velcheti, MD, an assistant professor of Medicine at Cleveland Clinic Lerner School of Medicine, discusses the ALK inhibitor alectinib (Alecensa) and what potential the agent could have in the frontline setting for patients with ALK-positive non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Velcheti shared this insight in an interview during the 2016 OncLive State of the Science Summit on Non–Small Cell Lung Cancer.

Mary Jo Fidler, MD, associate professor, medical oncology, hematology, internal medicine, Rush University Medical Center, discusses how early and persistent oligoclonal T cell expansion correlates with durable response to anti-PD1 therapy in non-small cell lung cancer treatment (NSCLC).

Although there are no drugs that target TP53 mutations in any tumor type, a recent analysis of a non–small cell lung cancer sample set raises the prospect that a more detailed understanding of this aberration eventually could help direct therapy.

Heather A. Wakelee, MD, associate professor of Medicine (Oncology), Stanford University Medical Center, regent, International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC) discusses the FDA approval of pembrolizumab (Keytruda) in the frontline setting for patients with non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

The FDA has approved pembrolizumab (Keytruda) for the frontline treatment of patients with metastatic non­–small cell lung cancer whose tumors have ≥50% PD-L1 expression based on an FDA-approved test and who do not harbor EGFR or ALK aberrations.

Hossein Borghaei, DO, associate professor at Fox Chase Cancer Center, discusses selecting between nivolumab (Opdivo) and pembrolizumab (Keytruda) in second-line non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

Edward B. Garon, MD, director, Thoracic Oncology, Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, UCLA, discusses his concerns for potential immunotherapy combinations for the treatment of patients with lung cancer.

Patrick M. Forde, MBBCh, assistant professor of oncology, Johns Hopkins Hospital, discusses a study presented at ESMO 2016 on neoadjuvant nivolumab, in early stage resectable non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

David L. Rimm, MD, PhD, professor of pathology and of medicine, director of pathology tissue services, director of translational pathology, Yale Cancer Center, discusses various options for biomarker testing in lung cancer.

The FDA has approved atezolizumab (Tecentriq) for the treatment of patients with metastatic non–small cell lung cancer who have progressed after a platinum-containing regimen and an FDA-approved targeted therapy for those patients harboring EGFR or ALK abnormalities.

Sangeetha Palakurthi, PhD, head of the Cancer Biology and Pharmacology Group at the Belfer Center for Applied Cancer Science, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, discusses the FDA approval of atezolizumab (Tecentriq) for the treatment of patients with non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

Puneeth Iyengar, MD, radiation oncologist, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, discusses the rationale behind the use of hypofractionated radiation as a treatment for patients with non–small cell lung cancer.

The combination of custirsen with docetaxel failed to significantly extend overall survival compared with docetaxel alone as a second-line treatment for patients with non–small cell lung cancer.

Joshua Sabari, MD, medical oncology fellow, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, discusses recent findings in immunotherapy as potential treatment for patients with small cell lung cancer.

Roy S. Herbst, MD, PhD, Ensign Professor of Medicine (Medical Oncology), professor of Pharmacology, chief of Medical Oncology, Yale Cancer Center and Smilow Cancer Hospital, associate director for Translational Research, Disease Alligned Research Team Leader, Thoracic Oncology Program, Yale Cancer Center, discusses the current and future impact of immunotherapy in lung cancer.

Ranee Mehra, MD, provides an overview of ALK inhibition in non–small cell lung cancer, an observation of the most common treatment-related adverse events, and what impact in-development agents will likely have on the expanding field.

Joel Neal, MD, PhD, assistant professor of Medicine (Oncology), Stanford University Medical Center, discusses how PD-L1 testing may have played a role in the survival differences between frontline pembrolizumab and nivolumab in non–small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

Giorgio Scagliotti, MD, PhD, professor of Medical Oncology, University of Torino, discusses the design and the results of the phase III ASCEND-5 study during an interview at the 2016 ESMO Congress.

The addition of pembrolizumab (Keytruda) to frontline platinum-based chemotherapy for advanced non–small cell lung cancer almost doubled the response rate compared with chemotherapy alone.

Ignacio I. Wistuba, MD, chair, Department of Translational Molecular Pathology, Division of Pathology/Lab Medicine, Anderson Clinical Faculty Chair for Cancer Treatment and Research, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, discusses how pathologists maximize outcomes with limited tissue in patients with lung cancer.

First-line therapy with nivolumab failed to improve progression-free survival in PD-L1 positive non-small cell lung cancer compared with standard chemotherapy.

Atezolizumab (Tecentriq) reduced the risk of death by 27% compared with docetaxel in patients with advanced non–small cell lung cancer following the failure of platinum-based chemotherapy.

Progression-free survival was more than 3 times longer with ceritinib (Zykadia) than with chemotherapy, the current second-line standard, in patients with advanced ALK-positive non–small cell lung cancer who progressed after first-line crizotinib.