Alterations in the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) gene occur in up to 40% of non-small cell lung cancers (NSCLCs), among which exon 20 insertions are the third most common type of mutation and account for up to 12% of EGFR-mutated (EGFRm) cases.1,2 Exon 20 insertions alter the conformation

The ADAURA trial was a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, phase 3 study that evaluated the survival benefits of adjuvant osimertinib, an epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR)-tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI), in the treatment of patients with completely resected EGFR-mutated stage IB-IIIA non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).¹ A total of 682 adult patients with completely resected stage IB, II, IIIA NSCLC were recruited and randomized 1:1 to receive either osimertinib 80mg daily or placebo for 3 years until disease recurrence or treatment completion.¹ The primary endpoint of the ADAURA trial was disease-free survival (DFS) in stage II-IIIA patients.¹ Overall survival (OS) is one of the key secondary endpoints of the ADAURA trial.¹

Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) accounts for 85%of all types of lung cancer and is the most common cancer in Hong Kong with a total of 5,575 cases in 2019.^1,2 Approximately 30% of NSCLC patients are diagnosed as early stage, and surgical resection is the preferred treatment option for possibly co

Improving long-term survival in patients with resectable non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is still essential, despite advancements in the adjuvant therapies.¹ The CheckMate 816 trial previously demonstrated a significant improvement in the pathologic complete response (pCR) with neoadjuvant nivolumab (NIVO) + chemotherapy (chemo) compared with chemo alone in patients with resectable NSCLC, and maintained a good tolerability profile.¹ As a result, this regimen has currently gained approval from the United States for the treatment of adult patients with resectable NSCLC.¹

Over the past decades, treatment options in advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients without oncogenic drivers have been limited to cytotoxic chemotherapies with poor survival outcomes.¹ Although patients’ overall survival (OS) has been prolonged with the current standard of care (SoC) (i.e. pembrolizumab with or without chemotherapy) in recent years, the clinical outcomes are still suboptimal.^2,3 Dual immunotherapy, which brought substantial survival improvements across multiple malignancies such as advanced melanoma, sheds light on the further advance of metastatic NSCLC (without driver mutations) management.⁴ The combination of nivolumab (NIVO) and ipilimumab (IPI) with or without chemotherapy has demonstrated superior survival benefits in these patients, leading to the regulatory approval from the United States (US) Food and Drug Administration (FDA).^5,6 More recently, the efficacy of durvalumab and tremelimumab plus chemotherapy (D + T + CT) in treatment-naïve metastatic NSCLC patients has also been evaluated in the POSEIDON trial.⁷ In a webinar organized by the Hong Kong Precision Oncology Society, Dr. Melissa L. Johnson presented the encouraging data from POSEIDON and discussed the latest advances of immunotherapy in metastatic NSCLC. Dr. Au, Siu-Kie Joseph also shared his expert insights on the new POSEIDON data and discussed their impacts on the local clinical practice in an interview with Omnihealth Practice.

Adjuvant chemotherapy is a standard of care after complete surgical resection in patients with early-stage non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC).¹ The phase 3 IMpower010 trial aimed to evaluate adjuvant atezolizumab (anti-programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1)] versus best supportive care (BSC) after adjuvant platinum-based chemotherapy in patients with completely resected NSCLC, at the disease-free survival (DFS) interim analysis.² The study randomized 1,005 people with a ratio of 1:1 to receive adjuvant atezolizumab (1,200mg every 21 days; for 16 cycles or 1 year) or BSC following surgical resection (4-12 weeks prior) and up to 4 cycles of adjuvant cisplatin-based chemotherapy.² The possible impact on DFS and types of surgery therapies prior to adjuvant atezolizumab were also examined. DFS was presented by disease stage and nodal status (NO vs. N1 vs. N2).³

The introduction of immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) has revolutionized the approach to advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) by offering durable disease control with less side effects than traditional chemotherapy.1 However, as most patients do not benefit from ICIs, it is important to ide

According to Dr. David Gandara, University of California Davis, Comprehensive Cancer Center, United States, the requisites for implementing precision medicine are: i) the ability to profile tumors for biomarkers, ii) having drugs against these biomarker targets, and iii) having clinical trial design

The potent and orally available anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) inhibitor, brigatinib, had successfully demonstrated activity and efficacy against non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in patients who are refractory or could not tolerate crizotinib.^1,2