Dr. Jack West reviews the remarkable results of the NEJ009 trial that tested the combination of carboplatin/pemetrexed with gefitinib as initial therapy compared to gefitinib followed by chemotherapy in patients with EGFR mutation-positive advanced NSCLC.
Jul 09, 2018•13 min
Dr. Jack West reviews results from ARCHER-1050, a trial of dacomitinib vs. gefitinib, in EGFR mutation-positive NSCLC, asks whether the demonstrated survival benefit is enough to make dacomitinib a player as first line treatment.
Jul 05, 2018•7 min
Dr. Jack West discusses results and the significance of two important Japanese trials that test the combination of erlotinib (Tarceva) with bevacizumab (Avastin), which shows a consistent improvement in progression-free survival but not overall survival.
Jul 02, 2018•10 min
Dr. Jack West summarizes a small trial from UCLA that tests the utility of giving first line immunotherapy to EGFR mutation-positive patients with high tumor PD-L1 expression, which led to poor outcomes that should cast a long shadow on this approach.
Jun 28, 2018•7 min
Dr. Jack West summarizes key data from the IMpower131 trial of patients with advanced squamous NSCLC & examines whether the carboplatin/nab-paclitaxel/atezolizumab combination is a strong treatment option in this patient setting.
Jun 25, 2018•8 min
Dr. Jack West reviews data from the CheckMate 227 trial in patients with advanced NSCLC & tumor PD-L1 <1% that suggests potential utility of the nivolumab/ipilimumab (nivo/ipi) combination in patients with low PD-L1 and high tumor mutation burden (TMB).
Jun 22, 2018•9 min
Dr. Jack West reviews KEYNOTE-407, first line chemo/immunotherapy with pembrolizumab vs. chemo alone in advanced squamous NSCLC, which demonstrated a significant survival benefit that should change practice in this setting.
Jun 20, 2018•10 min
Dr. Jack West reviews the KEYNOTE-042 trial of pembrolizumab vs. chemo in PD-L1-positive NSCLC, highlighting key findings from the presentation in the Plenary Session at ASCO 2018, clinical implications, & whether it should change practice.
Jun 18, 2018•11 min
Dr. Jack West reviews his top 5 abstracts in stage I-III non-small cell lung cancer, small cell lung cancer, and mesothelioma at ASCO 2018, explaining why each is poised to change the landscape of patient care in this setting.
May 23, 2018•7 min
Dr. Jack West reviews his top 5 abstracts in the advanced NSCLC track at ASCO 2018, explaining why each is poised to change the landscape of patient care in this setting.
May 21, 2018•11 min
Dr. Jack West considers whether the results from the CheckMate 227 trial comparing nivolumab/ipilimumab to chemotherapy in patients with advanced NSCLC & high tumor mutation burden should change our management: AreTMB & nivo/ipi ready for prime time?
May 11, 2018•10 min
Dr. Jack West reviews clinical results in patients with advanced non-squamous NSCLC and negative (<1%) tumor PD-L1 on the KEYNOTE-189 trial, providing thoughts on the clinical implications of these findings in management of this patient subset.
May 04, 2018•7 min
Dr. Jack West reviews clinical results in patients with advanced non-squamous NSCLC and low (1-49%) tumor PD-L1 on the KEYNOTE-189 trial, providing thoughts on the clinical implications of these findings in management of this patient subset.
May 04, 2018•6 min
Dr. Jack West reviews clinical results in patients with advanced non-squamous NSCLC and high tumor PD-L1 on the KEYNOTE-189 trial, providing thoughts on the clinical implications of these findings in management of these patients.
Apr 30, 2018•8 min
Dr. Jack West reviews the trial design, efficacy endpoints, and toxicity results of the KEYNOTE-189 trial of pembrolizumab or placebo added to cisplatin or carboplatin with pemetrexed chemo in advanced non-squamous NSCLC with any PD-L1 expression.
Apr 27, 2018•13 min
Dr. Jack West presents early data suggesting that chemotherapy may be more effective after prior immunotherapy than otherwise.
Apr 12, 2018•5 min
Dr. Jack West reviews new data on patterns of acquired resistance after a response to immune checkpoint inhibitors for advanced NSCLC, along with the clinical implications of various options based on these observations.
Apr 10, 2018•12 min
Dr. Jack West summarizes the evolving data shaping our understanding of the role of immune checkpoint inhibitors for patients with EGFR- or ALK-positive advanced NSCLC, including more recent data that should change our perspective.
Apr 06, 2018•11 min
Dr. Jack West reviews the preliminary positive result form the IMpower131 trial of chemo +/- atezolizumab immunotherapy and considers what the clinical significance of these findings should be for patients with advanced squamous NSCLC.
Apr 04, 2018•9 min
Dr. Jack West explores the importance of following the overall survival of patients on the PACIFIC trial and considers still open questions of whether consolidation durvalumab (Imfinzi) in stage III unresectable NSCLC should be discontinued after a year.
Feb 22, 2018•7 min
Dr. Jack West reviews key results of the PACIFIC trial of the immunotherapy agent durvalumab (Imfinzi) vs. placebo in stage III NSCLC and explains the pros and cons of durvalumab as a new standard of care after concurrent chemoradiation.
Feb 20, 2018•8 min
Dr. Jack West reviews the new FDA approval for afatinib (Gilotrif) for specific uncommon EGFR mutations, including G719X, L861Q, and S768I, in advanced NSCLC.
Jan 22, 2018•8 min
Dr. Jack West reviews the results and pending questions of the KEYNOTE-189 trial of chemotherapy with or without pembrolizumab (KEYTRUDA) as first line therapy for advanced non-squamous NSCLC, as well as how they change the treatment landscape.
Jan 20, 2018•7 min
Dr. Jack West reviews provocative biomarker results on the IMpower150 trial that tested atezolizumab with carboplatin/paclitaxel +/- bevacizumab & revealed strongest benefit of atezo in those with T effector gene signature high expression or high PD-L1.
Dec 21, 2017•11 min
Dr. Jack West reviews the preliminary clinical results on the IMpower150 trial that tested the value of adding the immune checkpoint inhibitor atezolizumab to carbo/paclitaxel/bevacizumab in patients with chemo-naïve advanced non-squamous NSCLC.
Dec 18, 2017•12 min
Dr. Jack West reviews the implications, both encouraging and potentially detrimental, of a recent FDA approval for broad genomic (NGS) testing of all solid tumors, ushering in a new era of growing precision medicine and molecular oncology.
Dec 11, 2017•9 min
Dr. Jack West reviews data on the FDA-approved combination of dabrafenib/trametinib for patients with BRAF V600E mutation-positive advanced NSCLC, as published by Planchard & colleagues in Lancet Oncology.
Dec 08, 2017•7 min
Dr. Jack West reviews the pros and cons of using osimertinib first line vs. "saving" it as a second line therapy, trying to determine the optimal sequence for EGFR-directed therapy in advanced EGFR mutation-positive NSCLC.
Dec 01, 2017•12 min
Dr. Jack West reviews the results of the ARCHER-1050 trial that showed superior efficacy with dacomitinib vs. gefitinib in EGFR mutation-positive NSCLC. Is it too little, too late for dacomitinib, or can it find a place in a crowded first line setting?
Nov 28, 2017•8 min
Dr. Jack West addresses the question of whether the data with various PD-1 and PD-L1 inhibitors in lung cancer management can be viewed as a class effect and whether these immune checkpoint inhibitors should be considered interchangeable.
Nov 13, 2017•6 min