Urgent need for the continued development of targeted treatment for NSCLC after study 'shows potential'
NSCLC is any type of epithelial lung cancer other than small cell lung cancer (SCLC). The most common types of NSCLC are squamous cell carcinoma, large cell carcinoma, and adenocarcinoma, but there are several other types that occur less frequently, and all types can occur in unusual histological variants. Although NSCLCs are associated with cigarette smoke, adenocarcinomas may be found in patients who never smoked.
The Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson announced long-term results from the Chrysalis study this week (June 4).
The results showed the combination of Rybrevant (amivantab) and lazernib, a third-generation EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) was associated with sustained antitumour activity as a first in line treatment.
These findings and additional data, including an analysis of predictive biomarkers from cohort D of the phase 1/1b Chrysalis-2 study that are evaluating a chemotherapy-free regimen of amivantamab in combination with Lazertinib and updated safety results from the phase 1 Paloma study evaluating the subcutaneous (SC) administration of amivantamab as a monotherapy were presented at the 2023 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) annual meeting this week (June 4-6).
Safety among patients in this cohort was consistent with previous reports and no new safety signals were identified. Treatment-related dose interruptions, reductions and discontinuations of either amivantamab or lazertinib occurred in seven patients (35 percent), eight patients (40%) and one patient (5%), respectively.
Se-Hoon Lee is a professor of medicine at the Samsung Medical Center and Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine in South Korea and the presenting author.
He said: “Advanced NSCLC and EGFR-mutated lung cancer has a five-year survival rate of less than 20 percent, underscoring an urgent need for more targeted treatment options, especially in earlier lines of therapy.
“These long-term data for amivantamab and lazertinib introduce the potential for this combination therapy to be used as first-line treatment for this patient population.”
As a class, NSCLC is usually less sensitive to chemotherapy and radiation therapy than SCLC. Patients with resectable disease may be cured by surgery or surgery followed by chemotherapy.
Local control can be achieved with radiation therapy in many patients with unresectable disease, but cure is seen in relatively few patients. Patients with locally advanced unresectable disease may achieve long-term survival with radiation therapy combined with chemotherapy. Patients with advanced metastatic disease may achieve improved survival and palliation of symptoms with chemotherapy, targeted agents, and other supportive measures.
