WCLC 2016 – Lung Cancer

Use of an ALK inhibitor is standard in patients with ALK-positive non–small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). In this phase 3 study, researchers compared 2 ALK inhibitors: crizotinib and alectinib. This randomized trial was designed to demonstrate superior progression-free survival for alectinib compared with crizotinib in ALK-inhibitor–naïve ALK-positive NSCLC.

The SQUIRE study demonstrated that the addition of necitumumab to gemcitabine plus cisplatin improved overall survival in patients with metastatic squamous non–small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Researchers evaluated the clinical outcomes associated with this triplet regimen in a subset of patients in the SQUIRE trial whose tumors expressed an epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR).

Afatinib, an irreversible ErbB family blocker, and gefitinib, a reversible EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitor, are approved for first-line treatment of advanced EGFR-mutated non–small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Researchers reported updated OS findings from a phase 2b trial (LUX-Lung 7) that compared afatinib versus gefitinib in first-line patients.

Atezolizumab, a humanized anti–PD-L1 monoclonal antibody, is approved for the treatment of patients with metastatic non–small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) whose disease progressed during or following platinum-containing chemotherapy. OAK is one of the 2 international, randomized, open-label clinical trials that demonstrated superior efficacy for atezolizumab over docetaxel.

Patients with SCLC whose disease progressed during or after initial platinum-based chemotherapy have few treatment options. Nivolumab alone and combined with ipilimumab has demonstrated clinical benefit in multiple tumor types. Researchers presented updated results for the SCLC cohort of the phase 1/2 CheckMate 032 trial.