Lung Cancer 2013: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
Lung Cancer 2013: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
In 2013, what stood out as new research and new ideas that might change the management of lung cancer moving forward? Medscape asked Mark Kris, MD, from Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, and Howard West, MD, from Swedish Cancer Institute in Seattle, Washington, to weigh in with their ideas.
Both pointed to the better understanding of what underlies resistance to EGFR- and ALK-targeting agents in patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). On one end, there are increasingly good results with new platforms designed to identify targets and appropriate treatments; on the other end, there are more and more data from clinical trials demonstrating the value of new agents that directly target mutations associated with treatment resistance.
Another checkmark in the "positive" column is the promise of immunotherapy as an effective intervention in patients with NSCLC, as demonstrated by the good results seen in early clinical trials with PD-1 and PD-L1 inhibitors.
But the extraordinarily high cost of new agents and trials exploring new treatment regimens is a big X in the "negative" column when looking at progress in the field in 2013.
The question remains, how will these positive and negative factors identified by Drs. Kris and West influence standard practice in the coming years?
Introduction
In 2013, what stood out as new research and new ideas that might change the management of lung cancer moving forward? Medscape asked Mark Kris, MD, from Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, and Howard West, MD, from Swedish Cancer Institute in Seattle, Washington, to weigh in with their ideas.
Both pointed to the better understanding of what underlies resistance to EGFR- and ALK-targeting agents in patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). On one end, there are increasingly good results with new platforms designed to identify targets and appropriate treatments; on the other end, there are more and more data from clinical trials demonstrating the value of new agents that directly target mutations associated with treatment resistance.
Another checkmark in the "positive" column is the promise of immunotherapy as an effective intervention in patients with NSCLC, as demonstrated by the good results seen in early clinical trials with PD-1 and PD-L1 inhibitors.
But the extraordinarily high cost of new agents and trials exploring new treatment regimens is a big X in the "negative" column when looking at progress in the field in 2013.
The question remains, how will these positive and negative factors identified by Drs. Kris and West influence standard practice in the coming years?