Lung Cancer

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.

Histological subtyping of lung cancer is still clinically important, said Ignacio I. Wistuba, MD. However, additional parameters such as driver alterations, alternative methods for molecular testing, and immunotherapy-related biomarkers have strengthened the diagnostic and treatment paradigms 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 from the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer highlights the multiple barriers to molecular testing in lung cancer, and highlights 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 (Tabrecta) for the treatment of adults with metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with a mutation that leads to MET exon 14 skipping (METex14), as detected by an FDA-approved test, according to Novartis, the manufacturer of the oral MET inhibitor.

Results from the Lung TRACERx study, in which the biomarker was found, has the potential to set the stage for future clinical trials that are structured to increase the standard-of-care dosage in patients with non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who become MRD-positive after surgery.

The FDA has granted a breakthrough therapy designation to mobocertinib (TAK-788) for the treatment of patients with EGFR exon 20–mutant non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with disease progression following platinum-based chemotherapy, according to Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited, the manufacturer of the small-molecule TKI.

Bristol Myers Squibb recently announced that the FDA granted priority review to nivolumab plus ipilimumab in combination with chemotherapy as a first-line treatment for metastatic NSCLC.

The FDA granted priority review to pembrolizumab monotherapy for the treatment of adult and pediatric patients with unresectable or metastatic TMB-high solid tumors who have progressed following prior treatment and who have no satisfactory alternative treatment options.

The FDA approved durvalumab (Imfinzi) plus standard-of-care (SoC) chemotherapies etoposide with either carboplatin or cisplatin (platinum-etoposide) for the treatment of adults with extensive-stage small cell lung cancer (ES-SCLC).

After nearly 4 decades of stagnation, the advent of immunotherapy has transformed the frontline treatment paradigm for patients with extensive-stage small cell lung cancer (ES-SCLC). However, biomarkers are needed to better inform which patients are most likely to respond to checkpoint inhibitors, said Jason Niu, MD, PhD.

The FDA has accepted a biologics license application for a proposed biosimilar for bevacizumab (Avastin), according to an announcement by Mylan during its fourth quarter 2019 earnings call.

The FDA Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee voted 6 to 5 that ramucirumab plus erlotinib demonstrated a favorable benefit and risk profile for patients with untreated metastatic EGFR-positive non-small cell lung cancer.