HER2-targeted therapies have demonstrated substantial survival benefits for patients with HER2-positive breast cancer. So can we use those agents for HER2-positive NSCLC? Join Drs. Lyudmila Bazhenova and Benjamin Levy as they discuss the latest data around emerging agents for HER2-positive NSCLC and the best way to identify these mutations in clinical practice in this 15-minute CME activity.

The addition of the PD-1 inhibitor serplulimab to chemotherapy significantly prolonged survival compared with chemotherapy alone as first-line treatment of patients with extensive-stage small cell lung cancer (ES-SCLC). Interim analysis of the phase 3 ASTRUM-005 study – comparing serplumimab plus chemotherapy to chemotherapy alone in 1st line extensive stage SCLC – showed a median OS of 15.4 months with serplulimab compared with 10.9 months with placebo. Patients who received serplulimab also had significantly longer median progression-free survival (PFS) 5.8 vs. 4.3 months respectively. The study included 585 patients with untreated extensive stage-SCLC, were randomized 2:1 to serplulimab (4.5 mg/kg) or placebo every 3 weeks. All patients received carboplatin and etoposide every 3 weeks for up to four cycles.

Immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI)-refractory cancers are arguably one of the greatest unmet needs in oncology. In this randomized phase II substudy, patients ineligible for a biomarker-matched previously treated with ICI and platinum-based chemotherapy and progressive disease at least 84 days after initiation of ICI were randomly assigned to receive ramucirumab plus pembrolizumab (RP) or investigator’s choice standard of care (SOC: docetaxel/ramucirumab, docetaxel, gemcitabine, and pemetrexed). The study’s primary objective was to compare overall survival (OS). The median OS was 14.5 months for RP and 11.6 months for SOC. Docetaxel and ramucirumab were the most common SOC, received by 2/3 of patients. This randomized phase II trial demonstrated significantly improved OS with RP compared with SOC in patients with advanced NSCLC previously treated with ICI and chemotherapy.

The 28-year-old Canadian pop star recently put the condition into the limelight after showing his face to his millions of Instagram followers. Ramsay Hunt Syndrome is caused by the varicella-zoster virus – the virus that causes chickenpox – but here’s more on the condition that plagues 5 in 100,000 people every year.

In a look “Beyond the Guidelines,” a preventive cardiologist and a general internist discuss their approach in the case of a 57-year-old woman with high cholesterol and a family history of heart disease.

The review, which we covered previously, concluded that “oral, synthetic cannabis products with high THC-to-CBD ratios and sublingual, extracted cannabis products with comparable THC-to-CBD ratios may be associated with short-term improvements in chronic pain and increased risk for dizziness and sedation.”