Cheryl Zigrand

Treatments for triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) have made significantly less progress in comparison with other subtypes.

Advances in the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) have resulted in some positive outcomes in recent years, adding choices to the treatment armamentarium.

Today, the treatment options for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in the United States include targeted therapies aimed at angiogenesis (bevacizumab), EGFR mutations (erlotinib and afatinib), and ALK translocations (crizotinib).

Testing for genetic abnormalities is important in NSCLC, both to ensure that as many patients as possible are benefit from approved therapies and to advance understanding of more targets that may be able to lead to future treatments.

WCLC is the largest meeting dedicated to lung cancer and other thoracic malignancies. This year’s theme was “Next-Generation Lung Cancer Care,” and highlights from some key data presented are provided here.

The addition of bevacizumab, erlotinib, afatinib, and crizotinib to the treatment arsenal for NSCLC has been a major advance in the treatment of this disease. However, there is a large imbalance within tumor types.

The long-term prognosis for most patients with mantle cell lymphoma (MCL) is poor, with median overall survival rates of 3 to 5 years. Because treatment is not curative, almost all patients will experience a relapse or find that their disease is refractory to treatment.