Concurrent chemotherapy and thoracic radiotherapy (TRT) have been the standard treatment for limited-stage small-cell lung cancer (SCLC) since the early 1990s, with twice-daily TRT at a dose of 45 Gy being the most commonly recommended schedule. However, less than one third of patients are cured after chemoradiotherapy.
Trastuzumab deruxtecan (T-DXd) is a novel antibody-drug conjugate containing a humanized anti-HER2 monoclonal antibody linked to a topoisomerase I inhibitor exatecan derivative. The open-label, multicenter, phase II DESTINY-Lung01 study tested T-DXd 6.4 mg/kg 3-weekly in patients with relapsed or refractory advanced NSCLC that expressed HER2 (Cohort 1; n = 42) or carried HER2-activating mutations (Cohort 2; n = 42).
The global consortium TERAVOLT was established to determine factors that place patients with thoracic malignancies who develop COVID-19 at risk for hospitalization and death, to elucidate the clinical course of these patients and to identify therapeutic strategies that might impact survival. Thoracic cancer patients with a COVID-19 diagnosis, i.e. cases of confirmed infection according to RT-PCR techniques and suspected COVID-19 cases, are being entered into the database.
The oral, triple angiokinase inhibitor nintedanib has been approved in the European Union and other countries in combination with docetaxel for the treatment of advanced adenocarcinoma of the lung after first-line chemotherapy. It works by targeting vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) receptors 1-3, platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF) receptors α/β and fibroblast growth factor (FGF) receptors 1-3, as well as RET.
Approximately 30 % of NSCLC patients present with resectable disease at diagnosis. Surgery is the primary treatment for early-stage NSCLC; after resection, adjuvant cisplatin-based chemotherapy is recommended for patients with stage II/IIIA lung cancer and select patients with stage IB disease. However, the rates for disease recurrence or death following surgery and adjuvant chemotherapy remain high, ranging from 45 % in stage IB to 76 % in stage III.
Oligometastatic disease is generally defined by one to five metastatic lesions. As progression occurs most frequently in sites of the original disease, it is surmised that aggressive local treatment might prevent further dissemination. Based on this rationale, the open-label, randomized, phase III SINDAS trial conducted in China explored the use of concurrent stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) and EGFR TKI therapy in patients with oligometastatic, EGFR-mutant NSCLC.
First-line nivolumab plus ipilimumab (NI) was shown to significantly prolong OS compared to chemotherapy in patients with advanced NSCLC irrespective of tumor PD-L1 expression in the randomized, phase III CheckMate 227 study. At the ASCO Congress, Ramalingam et al. presented the updated 3-year efficacy and safety results from Part 1 of the trial.
Oncogenic alterations of the exon 14 of the mesenchymal-epithelial transition (MET) gene occur in 3 % to 4 % of patients with adenocarcinoma of the lung and in 2 % of those with squamous-cell lung cancer. MET exon 14 (METex14) mutations tend to coexist with MET amplifications. Multiple agents are in development for the treatment of lung cancer patients with these alterations.
Although the COVID-19 pandemic has prevented on-site attendance of the world’s largest cancer conference this year, the experts’ avid interest in advances in their respective areas of s pecialization remains unchanged. Approximately 40,000 oncology professionals participated in the three-day virtual ASCO scientific meeting that was held online from Friday, May 29, through Sunday, May 31.
