Biomarker-Driven Lung Cancer

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Despite recommendations from the United States Preventative Services Task Force, 1.9% of the 7.6 million current and former heavy smokers underwent cancer screening in 2016, suggesting screening is still inadequate. These results were presented ahead of the 2018 ASCO Annual Meeting being held in Chicago, Illinois on June 1-5, 2018.

According to findings&nbsp;released ahead of the 2018 ASCO Annual Meeting, the use of next-generation sequencing (NGS) for patients with&nbsp;metastatic non&ndash;small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) can save&nbsp;Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) payers $1.4 million to $2.1 million. The findings additionally showed that NGS saved commercial insurance providers more than $250,000.<br /> &nbsp;

Ben Levy, MD, recently shared the treatment considerations and decisions he makes when treating patients with metastatic non&ndash;small cell lung cancer. Levy, clinical director of Medical Oncology, John Hopkins Sydney Kimmel Center, Washington, DC, explained his treatment decisions based on a case scenario during a <em>Targeted Oncology</em> live case-based peer perspectives presentation.

Based on findings from the phase III IMpower150 trial, a supplemental biologics license application for atezolizumab has been granted a priority review by the FDA&nbsp;for use in combination with bevacizumab, carboplatin, and paclitaxel for the first-line treatment of patients with metastatic nonsquamous non&ndash;small cell lung cancer.

Alice Shaw, MD, PhD, director of Thoracic Oncology at Massachusetts General Hospital, discussed the efficacy results from a recent trial investigating lorlatinib as treatment for patients with anaplastic lymphoma kinase-positive (ALK) non&ndash;small cell lung cancer that had failed other treatments prior, including crizotinib (Xalkori) and other multiple ALK tyrosine-kinase inhibitors.

The FDA approved several indications throughout the month of April 2018.&nbsp;A number of drugs were granted priority review and Fast Track designation. The FDA also halted all clinical trials using&nbsp;tazemetostat as treatment, and new initiatives were introduced&nbsp;to help ease the development of genetic and genomic-based tests.&nbsp;Check out our list of all FDA happenings from April 2018.

The physician editor-in-chief of&nbsp;The Journal of Targeted Therapies in Cancer&trade;, found 2 articles particularly interesting in this issue on therapeutic possibilities&nbsp;for patients with recurrent and metastatic epithelial cancers.. These articles show&nbsp;that combinatorial strategies harnessing conventional modalities such as radiation therapy (RT) and immune stimulatory approaches may have additional value for this population of patients.