Lung Cancer

The FDA approved nivolumab (Opdivo) plus ipilimumab (Yervoy) for the frontline treatment of adults with unresectable, malignant, pleural mesothelioma (MPM), according to Bristol Myers Squibb, the manufacturer of the immunotherapy agents.

The paradigm of advanced nonsquamous non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is now one that necessitates discussions regarding the use of combination chemoimmunotherapy, combination immunotherapy, and single-agent immunotherapy, explained Jonathan Dowell, MD.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved pralsetinib (Gavreto) for the treatment of patients with metastatic, RET fusion-positive non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), according to Genentech, the co-manufacturer of the drug.

Small cell lung cancer is very sensitive to chemotherapy, but immunotherapy offers another line of treatment for when chemotherapy stops working.

The FDA has approved a generic form of pemetrexed for intravenous administration as a single-agent in patients with locally advanced or metastatic nonsquamous non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) that has not progressed following 4 cycles of first-line platinum-based chemotherapy.

Locally advanced non-small cell lung cancer traditionally had high relapse rates after initial treatment. Now durvalumab may bring better survival rates to these patients.

The FDA has approved Guardant360® CDx for comprehensive genomic profiling in patients with any solid malignant cancer.

When it comes to immunotherapy-related adverse events, patients with lung cancer tend to have higher rates of pneumonitis than other cancer types, one nurse explains.

Parameters such as driver alterations, alternative methods for molecular testing, and immunotherapy-related biomarkers are gaining importance in lung cancer.

Lurbinectedin (Zepzelca) was added to the Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology by the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) on July 7, 2020 for the treatment of patients with small cell lung cancer (SCLC), according to a press release from Jazz Pharmaceuticals.

Veterans with newly diagnosed lung cancer who had mental health disorders tended to have better cancer outcomes if they participated in mental health treatment.

Fam-trastuzumab deruxtecan-nxki (Enhertu) could provide patients with metastatic non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who harbor HER2 exon 20 insertion mutations and high HER2 expression a more specific and less toxic treatment compared with platinum doublet chemotherapy. However, the jury is still out on whether the agent will be pursued as an alternative frontline therapy and in both patient subsets.

The combination of atezolizumab (Tecentriq) plus carboplatin/etoposide continued to demonstrate an improvement in overall survival (OS) versus chemotherapy alone as a frontline treatment for patients with extensive-stage small cell lung cancer (ES-SCLC), regardless of PD-L1 and blood tumor mutational burden (bTMB) status.

The FDA has approved pembrolizumab (Keytruda) to treat adult and pediatric patients with unresectable or metastatic solid tumors that are tissue tumor mutational burden–high (≥10 mutations/megabase) and have progressed following prior therapy and who have no satisfactory alternative treatment options.

The FDA approved lurbinectedin (Zepzelca) for the treatment of adult patients with metastatic small cell lung cancer with disease progression, following platinum-based chemotherapy.

The 4-drug combination of atezolizumab (Tecentriq), bevacizumab (Avastin), carboplatin, and paclitaxel (ABCP) improved survival while maintaining good health-related quality of life (QOL) in patients with nonsquamous non–small cell lung cancer .

The FDA has approved the combination of ramucirumab (Cyramza) and erlotinib (Tarceva) as a frontline treatment for patients with metastatic non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) whose tumors harbor EGFR exon 19 deletions (Ex19del) or exon 21 (L858R) substitution mutations.

A recent survey highlights the multiple barriers to molecular testing in lung cancer, and solutions to overcome them.

Immunotherapy should be continued for up to 2 years in patients with metastatic lung cancer who are responding to the treatment, unless they experience disease progression or excessive toxicity, according to Gilberto de Lima Lopes, MD.

The FDA has approved brigatinib (Alunbrig) for the first-line treatment of patients with ALK-positive metastatic non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), as detected by an FDA-approved test.

The FDA continues to approve new cancer drugs, with multiple treatment regimens getting the agency’s OK within the last week.

The FDA has approved the single-agent atezolizumab as a first-line treatment for patients with metastatic non-small cell lung cancer who have a high PD-L1 expression and no EGFR or ALK genomic tumor aberrations.

People who quit smoking at any time, even up to 2 years before a lung cancer diagnosis, have increased chances of survival after their diagnosis, according to data during a 2020 ASCO Virtual Scientific Program press briefing.

The FDA approved nivolumab (Opdivo) plus ipilimumab (Yervoy) for the frontline treatment of patients with metastatic or recurrent non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with no EGFR or ALK aberrations.

The FDA approved selpercatinib for the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer, medullary thyroid cancer, and other thyroid cancers with RET alterations.

The FDA granted an accelerated approval to capmatinib for the treatment of adults with metastatic non-small cell lung cancer with a mutation that leads to MET exon 14 skipping (METex14).

In the adjuvant setting, circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) may be a biomarker for the detection of post-surgical minimal residual disease (MRD) and for determining the clonality of relapsing disease.

The FDA has granted a breakthrough therapy designation to mobocertinib for the treatment of patients with EGFR exon 20–mutant non–small cell lung cancer.

With minimally invasive procedures to test lung cancer tumors, there often isn't enough tissue to undergo a full biomarker test, pointing toward the strength of liquid biopsies, explained Lynette M. Sholl, MD, chief of thoracic pathology at Brigham and Women's Hospital, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and associate professor at Harvard Medical School.