Dr. Herbst on the Evolution of Targeted Therapies in NSCLC

Roy S. Herbst, MD, PhD, ensign professor of medicine (medical oncology), professor of pharmacology, Yale School of Medicine, director, the Center for Thoracic Cancers, chief, Medical Oncology, associate cancer center director, Translational Science, Yale Cancer Center, Smilow Cancer Hospital, discusses the evolving treatment landscape of targeted therapies in non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

Multiple FDA approvals highlighted a busy year of action in the lung cancer space in 2021, Herbst says. The approval of osimertinib (Tagrisso) brought targeted therapy to the adjuvant setting for patients with stage I, II, and III NSCLC harboring EGFR mutations, Herbst explains. Moreover, the atezolizumab (Tecentriq) was approved for adjuvant treatment in patients with stage II to IIIA NSCLC whose tumors have PD-L1 expression on 1% or more of tumor cells, Herbst adds.

These approvals have helped bring some of the best drugs and targeted therapies into earlier settings, Herbst continues. The approval of new targeted therapies, such as amivantamab-vmjw (Rybrevant) as the first treatment for adult patients with NSCLC harboring EGFR exon 20 insertion mutations, also demonstrate how the landscape has shifted, Hebst concludes.