Articles related to LUNG CANCER

The 2023 AACR meeting has seen a large number of clinical abstracts presented, demonstrating that science from the lab is moving to the clinic. Examples include an RNA vaccine from Moderna in combination with pembrolizumab in a neoadjuvant setting in patients with melanoma, and the AEGEAN trial, which looks at perioperative therapy in patients with lung cancer. The conference is also seeing a focus on more diverse speakers, including junior investigators. The field of mRNA cancer vaccines is evolving, with personalised vaccines being used to activate the immune system in combination with checkpoint inhibitors, resulting in positive results in some cancers. The conference is an opportunity to learn about new science, make new connections and collaborations, and gain a better understanding of how to push the field forward.

Significant progress has been made in the last 20 years in the identification of therapeutically relevant oncogenic drivers in NSCLC. These oncogenic drivers have been the focus of targeted medicines that have been created to offer enhanced tailored treatment for NSCLC. To improve the choice of patient-specific treatment, an oral presentation at the 2023 ONA Summit Live Virtual Meeting compared guideline-directed targeted therapies based on patient and tumor characteristics. It also described collaborative strategies for managing therapy-related adverse events for this patient population. Key molecular characteristics in advanced NSCLC were also discussed, along with their relationships to current and emerging targeted therapies.

The article discusses the expanding landscape of targeted therapies for patients with advanced metastatic non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC), with nine targetable oncogenes and seven approvals within the last five years. With these emerging therapeutic options, the article emphasizes the importance of understanding the existing data on immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) for each oncogene-driven lung cancer to guide the selection and sequencing of therapeutic options. The article reviews the clinical data on ICIs for each of the driver oncogene-defined lung cancer subtypes, including efficacy, toxicities, and potential strategies to enhance ICI efficacy in oncogene-driven NSCLC.

The study included 186 patients who had recently been diagnosed with advanced lung cancer (Stage IV). Investigators were curious about the relationship between depression levels and systemic inflammation ratio (SIR) biomarker levels at diagnosis. SIRs are made up of three biomarkers that are linked to inflammation in the body, which has been linked to lower survival rates. All participants also filled out a depression questionnaire. According to the findings, 35% of patients had moderate to severe depressive symptoms.

Charu Aggarwal, MD, MPH, of the University of Pennsylvania’s Abramson Cancer Center in Philadelphia, H. Jack West, MD, of the City of Hope Comprehensive Cancer Center in the Los Angeles area, and Devika Das, MD, of the University of Alabama at Birmingham discuss the distinction between uncommon EGFR mutations and sensitizing mutations, as well as the lack of data on how to treat these patients with tyrosine kinase inhibitors.

Medical oncologists, pulmonologists, pathologists, oncology nurses, pharmacists, and other oncology HCPs who treat patients with lung cancer should be better able to describe ideal evidence-based treatment selection and sequencing recommendations for the use of immuno-oncologic therapy in patients with early-stage NSCLC and evaluate clinical trial data of emerging immunotherapy-based agents in the treatment after completing this three-chapter, 0.50-credit CME activity.