ASCO 2015 Highlights

Weekly epirubicin was evaluated as a potential “gentle” option for second-line chemotherapy in patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma after failure of first-line pemetrexed-based chemotherapy.

Approximately 30% of patients with non–small-cell lung cancer present with early-stage (I-IIIA) disease and undergo surgery. Researchers assessed the use of adjuvant osimertinib in this population.

Despite the approval of immune checkpoint inhibitors for patients with lung cancers, their role in rare pulmonary tumors, such as large-cell neuroendocrine carcinoma of the lung, has remained unclear.

Patients with platinum-pretreated small-cell lung cancer may benefit from combination use of cediranib, an oral VEGF inhibitor, and olaparib, a PARP inhibitor.

Developing novel targeted therapies for patients with cancer who have rare mutations, such as PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway alterations, is particularly challenging for researchers.

Combining nivolumab plus ipilimumab with 2 cycles of chemotherapy may be effective in patients undergoing first-line treatment for metastatic non–small-cell lung cancer.

After 3 years of follow-up, nivolumab combined with ipilimumab demonstrates sustained overall survival rates in treatment-naïve patients with advanced non–small-cell lung cancer.

The addition of 2 cycles of chemotherapy to the combination of nivolumab and ipilimumab results in superior overall survival in treatment-naïve patients with advanced non–small-cell lung cancer.

Standard treatment for patients with advanced malignant pleural mesothelioma is predominantly chemotherapy-based. Nivolumab may be effective in these patients based on a retrospective real-world data assessment.

Stereotactic ablative radiotherapy combined with immunotherapy (I-SABR) is well-tolerated in patients with early-stage, medically inoperable, isolated-recurrence non–small-cell lung cancer without lymph node or distant metastasis.