The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved erlotinib tablets (Tarceva®; Genentech, Astellas Pharma), a once-daily, oral non-chemotherapy medicine for the initial or first-line treatment of people with metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) whose tumors have certain epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) activating mutations as detected by an FDA-approved test. In…

Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor (EGFR) and KRAS are the most commonly mutated oncogenes in lung cancer. EGFR kinase domain mutations have been established as valid predictors of increased sensitivity to gefitinib (Iressa, AstraZeneca) and erlotinib (Tarceva, Genentech). On the other hand, patients with mutant KRAS tumors fail to benefit from adjuvant chemotherapy and their disease…

Drugs classified as poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitors have been shown to be promising anticancer agents for breast and ovarian cancers deficient in either BRCA1 or BRCA2. Now, according to data from a preclinical study published in the April 1, 2013 issue of Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research,…

Transforming rearrangements of the ALK (anaplastic lymphoma kinase) gene define a unique subset of patients with non–small cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC). While ALK gene rearrangements affect only about 4% of all lung cancers, they are more frequent in adenocarcinomas, in never or light smokers, and seem almost mutually exclusive with activating EGFR or KRAS mutations. Today, the clinical success of the anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) inhibitor crizotinib (…

Results from a large observational follow-up study conducted in Shanghai, China, being published online March 25, 2013 in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, reports that nonsmoking Chinese women who consumed more soy before being diagnosed with lung cancer lived longer compared with those who consumed less soy. The study provides the first scientific evidence that soy intake has a favorable effect on lung cancer…

The pivotal Phase III clinical trial of L-BLP25 (formerly referred to as Stimuvax®) known as START did not meet its primary endpoint of an improvement in overall survival in patients with unresectable, locally advanced stage IIIA or stage IIIB non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The trial was conducted by Merck Serono, a division of Merck KGaA of Darmstadt,…

A report released earlier today by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows that America's largest cities have made enormous progress in implementing smoke-free laws that apply to all workplaces, including restaurants and bars, but there is still much work to do to protect everyone's right to breathe clean air.…

Tesaro, an oncology-focused biopharmaceutical company, announced earlier today that the first clinical trial of its proprietary Anaplastic Lymphoma Kinase (ALK) inhibitor, TSR-011, has, for the first time, been used in a patient at the Virginia G. Piper Cancer Center Clinical Trials at Scottsdale Healthcare, a partnership between Scottsdale Healthcare and the TGen, the Translational Genomics Research Institute. Virginia…

Detailed results from an exploratory, randomized Phase II study evaluating the combination of ficlatuzumab (AVEO Oncology), a HGF inhibitory antibody, and gefitinib (Iressa; AstraZeneca) compared to gefitinib monotherapy in previously untreated Asian subjects with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) were presented at…

The results of a new phase III head-to-head study comparing crizotinib, a targeted therapy, with standard chemotherapy show that crizotinib is more effective than standard chemotherapy for patients with advanced, ALK-positive lung cancer. The results were prensented at the ESMO 2012 Congress of the European Society for Medical Oncology in Vienna, Austria (September 28 - October 2, 2012).…

A multicenter study in Germany reports that it is feasible to routinely conduct high-quality molecular analysis of non-small cell lung cancers (NSCLC) in local community hospitals that are not affiliated with academic medical centers. The study results, presented at the 48th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), indicate that molecular testing can be made available to more patients, and in many cases,…

Final results from PARAMOUNT trial, a Phase III clinical study of pemetrexed (Alimta®, Eli Lilly and Company) in the continuation maintenance setting, demonstrated improved overall survival in patients with advanced nonsquamous non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) treated with pemetrexed continuation maintenance. PARAMOUNT trial results were presented on Monday, June 4, 2012, at the 48th Annual Meeting of the American Society of…

For the first time, researchers at the University of California, San Diego have peered inside a living mouse cell and mapped the processes that power the celebrated health benefits of omega-3 fatty acids. More profoundly, they say their findings suggest it may be possible to manipulate these processes to short-circuit inflammation before it begins, or at least help to resolve inflammation before it becomes…

The long-term follow-up of a phase II clinical trial showed encouraging survival in some patients with stage 3B/4 non-small cell lung cancer treated with belagenpumatucel-L, a therapeutic vaccine. The findings were presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), held in Chicago, March 31 - April 4, 2012.



“This is a novel immunotherapy that appears to show unusually…

Testing patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) for both mutations and amplifications of the KRAS gene prior to therapy may help to predict response to treatment with antifolates, according to the updated results of a preclinical study,funded by the Quintiles Translational Research and Development Group and presented at the AACR Annual Meeting 2012, held in Chicago, March 31 - April 4.



Patients, especially those with lung cancer, who have KRAS…

Researchers at Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) and Van Andel Research Institute (VARI) today presented study results in which they conclude that a combination drug therapy may be needed to combat non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).



Non-small cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC) is characterized by a remarkable variety of genomic alterations and point…

The investigational drug ganetespib (STA-9090, Synta Pharmaceuticals), a synthetic second-generation Hsp90 inhibitor, slowed the growth of cancer cells taken from non-small cell lung cancer tumors with a mutation in the KRAS gene. The drug was even more active when combined with traditional lung cancer treatments and other investigational targeted therapies, according to preclinical study data.…

A trial with sorafenib(Nexavar®, Bayer/Onyx Pharmaceuticals), an oral multiple kinase inhibitor, was effective in patients with non-small cell lung cancer and a KRAS mutation, but survival rates were reportedly “unsatisfactory,” according to data presented at the AACR-IASLC Joint Conference on Molecular Origins of Lung Cancer: Biology, Therapy and Personalized Medicine, held January 8 -11, 2012.…

Multicentric carcinogenesis with the same genetic mutation appears to occur in lung adenocarcinoma, according to data presented at the AACR-IASLC Joint Conference on Molecular Origins of Lung Cancer: Biology, Therapy and Personalized Medicine, held January 8-11, 2012.



Data also demonstrated that the EGFR and KRAS genes, which are mutually exclusive, can be used to define clinically relevant molecular subsets of lung adenocarcinoma and can define tumor…

A combination of drugs that target estrogen production significantly reduced the number of tobacco carcinogen-induced lung tumors in mice, according to results from a preclinical study.



“Antiestrogens have been shown to prevent breast cancer in some women,” said Jill M. Siegfried, Ph.D., professor in the department of pharmacology and chemical biology at University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute. “If antiestrogens can prevent lung cancer as well, this…