Lung Cancer Research Results and Study Updates

In a study of people with advanced lung cancer, palliative care delivered via telehealth was just as effective at improving patients’ quality of life and other measures of well-being as care delivered in person.

Lorlatinib (Lorbrena) is superior to crizotinib (Xalkori) as an initial treatment for people with ALK-positive advanced non-small cell lung cancer, according to new clinical trial results. Treatment with lorlatinib also helped prevent new brain metastases.

The immunotherapy drug durvalumab (Imfinzi) can help people with early-stage small cell lung cancer live longer, results from a large clinical trial show. Three years after starting treatment, nearly 60% of people who received the drug were still alive.

FDA has approved alectinib (Alecensa) as adjuvant therapy for people with lung cancer who have ALK-positive tumors. In a clinical trial, alectinib helped people live longer after surgery without their cancer returning than chemotherapy.

The results of the clinical trial that led to FDA’s 2023 approval of repotrectinib (Augtyro) for lung cancers with ROS1 fusions have been published. The drug shrank tumors in 80% of people receiving the drug as an initial treatment.

A collection of material about the ALCHEMIST lung cancer trials that will examine tumor tissue from patients with certain types of early-stage, completely resected non-small cell lung cancer for gene mutations in the EGFR and ALK genes, and assign patients with these gene mutations to treatment trials testing post-surgical use of drugs targeted against these mutations.

Tarlatamab, a new type of targeted immunotherapy, shrank small cell lung cancer (SCLC) tumors in more than 30% of participants in an early-stage clinical trial. Participants had SCLC that had progressed after previous treatments with other drugs.

For people with lung cancer and medullary thyroid cancer whose tumors have changes in the RET gene, selpercatinib improved progression-free survival compared with other common treatments, according to new clinical trial results.

In the ADAURA clinical trial, people with early-stage lung cancer treated with osimertinib (Tagrisso) after surgery lived longer than people treated with a placebo after surgery. Despite some criticisms about its design, the trial is expected to change patient care.

For certain people with early-stage non-small cell lung cancer, sublobar surgery to remove only a piece of the affected lung lobe is as effective as surgery to remove the whole lobe, new research shows.

Pragmatica-Lung is a clinical trial for people with non-small cell lung cancer that has spread beyond the lungs (stage 4 cancer). The trial will help confirm if the combination of pembrolizumab and ramucirumab helps people with advanced lung cancer live longer.

On August 11, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) gave accelerated approval to trastuzumab deruxtecan (Enhertu) for adults with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) that has a specific mutation in the HER2 gene. Around 3% of people with NSCLC have this kind of HER2 mutation.

Giving people with early-stage lung cancer the immunotherapy drug nivolumab (Opdivo) and chemotherapy before surgery can substantially delay the progression or return of their cancer, a large clinical trial found.

Atezolizumab (Tecentriq) is now the first immunotherapy approved by FDA for use as an additional, or adjuvant, treatment for some patients with non-small cell lung cancer. The approval was based on results of a clinical trial called IMpower010.

Quitting smoking after a diagnosis of early-stage lung cancer may help people live longer, a new study finds. The study, which included more than 500 patients, also found that quitting smoking delayed the cancer from returning or getting worse.

NCI scientists and their international collaborators have found that the majority of lung cancers in never smokers arise when mutations caused by natural processes in the body accumulate. They also identified three subtypes of lung cancer these individuals.

FDA has approved the first KRAS-blocking drug, sotorasib (Lumakras). The approval, which covers the use of sotorasib to treat some patients with advanced lung cancer, sets the stage for other KRAS inhibitors already in development, researchers said.

Combining the chemotherapy drug topotecan and the investigational drug berzosertib shrank tumors in some patients with small cell lung cancer, results from an NCI-supported phase 1 clinical trial show. Two phase 2 trials of the combination are planned.

Mortality rates from the most common lung cancer, non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), have fallen sharply in the United States in recent years, due primarily to recent advances in treatment, an NCI study shows.

In a study of more than 50,000 veterans with lung cancer, those with mental illness who received mental health treatment—including for substance use—lived substantially longer than those who didn’t participate in such programs.

FDA has granted accelerated approval for selpercatinib (Retevmo) to treat certain patients with thyroid cancer or non-small cell lung cancer whose tumors have RET gene alterations. The drug, which works by blocking the activity of RET proteins, was approved based on the results of the LIBRETTO-001 trial.

Osimertinib (Tagrisso) improves survival in people with non-small cell lung cancer with EGFR mutations, updated clinical trial results show. People treated with osimertinib lived longer than those treated with earlier-generation EGFR-targeted drugs.

A large clinical trial showed that adding the immunotherapy drug durvalumab (Imfinzi) to standard chemotherapy can prolong survival in some people with previously untreated advanced small cell lung cancer.

The investigational drug selpercatinib may benefit patients with lung cancer whose tumors have alterations in the RET gene, including fusions with other genes, according to results from a small clinical trial.

FDA has approved entrectinib (Rozlytrek) for the treatment of children and adults with tumors bearing an NTRK gene fusion. The approval also covers adults with non-small cell lung cancer harboring a ROS1 gene fusion.

Clinical recommendations on who should be screened for lung cancer may need to be reviewed when it comes to African Americans who smoke, findings from a new study suggest.

Use of a multipronged approach within hospitals, including community centers, not only eliminated treatment disparities among black and white patients with early-stage lung cancer, it also improved treatment rates for all patients, results from a new study show.

In everyday medical care, there may be more complications from invasive diagnostic procedures performed after lung cancer screening than has been reported in large studies.

The Lung Cancer Master Protocol, or Lung-MAP, is a precision medicine research study for people with advanced non-small cell lung cancer that has continued to grow after treatment. Patients are assigned to different study drug combinations based on the results of genomic profiling of their tumors.

On December 6, 2018, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved atezolizumab (Tecentriq) in combination with a standard three-drug regimen as an initial treatment for advanced lung cancer that does not have EGFR or ALK mutations.

A new study has identified a potential biomarker of early-stage non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The biomarker, the study’s leaders said, could help diagnose precancerous lung growths and early-stage lung cancers noninvasively and distinguish them from noncancerous growths.