Dr Raez on Improving Access, Screening Amid Lung Cancer Treatment Boom

There should not be a patient that has not been tested, and there should not be a patient that has not been properly tested, because now we need to do the NGS, we need to do the liquid biopsy, and we have new drugs that require extra markers like immunohistochemistry.

Luis E. Raez, MD, chief scientific officer and medical director, Memorial Cancer Institute, Memorial Healthcare System; discussed barriers to molecular testing, screening, and access to novel therapies in lung cancer.

Raez chaired the Latin American session at the IASLC 2026 World Conference on Lung Cancer (WCLC) in Seoul, where discussion centered on improving lung cancer care in low- and middle-income countries. He also pointed to the meeting's first Presidential Symposium, which featured 2 positive phase 3 trials of B7-H3–directed antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) versuss topotecan in relapsed small cell lung cancer (SCLC): TAISHAN-302 (NCT06612151) of tambotatug pelitecan and ARTEMIS-008 (NCT06498479) of risvutatug rezetecan.

Molecular testing remains the primary challenge in Latin America, Raez said. Without testing, patients cannot be matched to the growing number of targeted agents, and not every solution is financial. He cited PCR-based EGFR testing, which he estimated costs roughly $300 compared with approximately $5000 for next-generation sequencing (NGS) in the United States, as a practical way to identify a large share of patients in a region where EGFR mutations are highly prevalent.

Screening was the second focus. Early detection remains the most effective route to cure and avoids costly therapies that do not cure, Raez said, yet few of the 25 Latin American countries have screening programs. Even in the United States, results have lagged because more physicians and patients need to participate.

In the US, Raez said, testing 100% of patients is achievable: the technology exists, and diagnostic companies offer patient assistance programs for uninsured or underinsured patients, which he sees firsthand in a public health system. Proper testing now means NGS, liquid biopsy, and immunohistochemistry for markers such as MET, PD-L1, and HER2 that newer agents require.

Turning to SCLC, Raez called the plenary data exciting but noted that both ADCs were developed in China and are not yet available in Western markets. Closing that gap, he said, may require regulatory alignment, enrolling Western patients in ongoing studies, or repeating the trials in Western populations.