Approximately one-third of patients with non-small-cell lung cancer who were treated with the targeted therapy Lumakras (sotorasib) survived for at least two years after enrolling in a large clinical trial that evaluated the drug—significantly longer than what can be expected from patients treated with standard chemotherapy.
The European Commission approved Libtayo (cemiplimab) in combination with platinum-based chemotherapy for the first-line treatment of adult patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer with ≥1% PD-L1 expression. This includes patients that have no EGFR, ALK, or ROS1 aberrations and whose tumors are metastatic or locally advanced and not candidates for definitive chemoradiation.
In a phase II trial led by researchers from MD Anderson Cancer Center, adding ipilimumab to a neoadjuvant combination of nivolumab plus platinum-based chemotherapy resulted in a major pathologic response in half of all treated patients with early-stage, resectable non-small cell lung cancer.
Positive high-level results from a planned interim analysis of the AEGEAN phase III, placebo-controlled trial showed that treatment with AstraZeneca’s Imfinzi (durvalumab) in combination with neoadjuvant chemotherapy before surgery and as adjuvant monotherapy after surgery demonstrated a statistically significant and clinically meaningful improvement in event-free survival versus neoadjuvant chemotherapy alone followed by surgery for patients with resectable early-stage (2a-3b) non-small cell lung cancer.
FDA approved Roche’s VENTANA PD-L1 (SP263) assay as a companion diagnostic to identify non-small cell lung cancer patients eligible for treatment with Libtayo (cemiplimab), based on the results of the Phase III EMPOWER-Lung study.
In a phase II, single-arm study published in Clinical Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research, patients with resectable non-small cell lung cancer who were treated with neoadjuvant nivolumab had improved five-year recurrence-free and overall survival rates compared with historical outcomes.
Data from a Yale Cancer Center-led clinical trial show improved rates of survival and reduced risk of recurrence in patients taking Tagrisso (osimertinib), a targeted therapy for non-small cell lung cancer.
A drug that recently received accelerated approval from FDA to treat a form of non-small cell lung cancer caused by a unique genetic mutation also appears to be effective against advanced pancreatic cancer caused by the same uncommon mutation.
FDA approved Keytruda (pembrolizumab) for adjuvant treatment following resection and platinum-based chemotherapy for stage 1B, 2, or 3A non-small cell lung cancer.
S2302 Pragmatica-Lung is a federally-funded, streamlined clinical trial examining a new combination of agents in patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Like most studies, it is focused on improving outcomes for patients with cancer—but it is also poised to simplify and transform the entire clinical trials model as we know it.
