In Caucasian patients, mutations of the EGFR gene occur in 10 % to 15 % of adenocarcinomas of the lung. “These tumours depend on EGFR signalling for growth and survival,” explained Anna Buder, MSc, Institute of Cancer Research, Department of Medicine I, Comprehensive Cancer Center, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
Robert Pirker, MD, Department of Internal Medicine I, Medical University of Vienna, Austria, discussed evidence from clinical trials for the treatment of lung cancer, with a focus on the findings presented at the ASCO 2016 Congress. As Dr. Pirker emphasised, a variety of topics was discussed at the conference, although none of the clinical trial results reported on this year have heralded fundamental changes in clinical practice.
In 2009, the 7th Edition of the TNM classification of malignant tumours was published. The proposals for the revised T, N and M categories will be implemented in the 8th Edition that is expected for late 2016. These proposals have been developed by the Staging and Prognostic Factors Committee of the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC) based on a large prospective database.
According to the principles stated by the World Health Organisation, screening programmes are aimed at timely detection of diseases that represent important health problems and for which there are accepted treatments. Suitable and acceptable tests are required, and the cost of case finding should be economically balanced.
“The 2004 classification had only one type of pre-invasive lesion, called atypical adenomatous hyperplasia”, Dr. Müllauer explained. “This type is still part of the new classification, but a new entity has been added, which is adenocarcinoma in situ.” By definition, atypical adenomatous hyperplasia is a localised, small (≤ 0.5 cm) proliferation of mildly to moderately atypical type II pneumocytes and/or Clara cells that line the alveolar walls.
