New Treatment Approved for Patients with Extensive Stage SCLC

On May 16, 2024, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced the accelerated approval of tarlatamab-dlle (Imdelltra®) to treat patients with extensive-stage small cell lung cancer (SCLC). This targeted immunotherapy, the first of its kind, is based on new technology. Tarlatamab is a bispecific T-cell engager (BiTE)—a drug with two arms that simultaneously binds to a T cell (a part of the immune system) and a tumor cell. This allows the T cell to come close enough to the tumor cell to recognize and destroy it. Tarlatamab is a second-line treatment that can be considered if chemotherapy

Safely Bring Yoga, Dietary Supplements, Exercise, and More into Your Lung Cancer Journey

Read time: 2 minutes Integrative oncology adds holistic approaches—such as acupuncture, nutrition, exercise, and mindfulness—into a treatment plan. Research shows these interventions can have a tremendous impact on people going through lung cancer treatment and their quality of life. Unfortunately, they are also topics riddled with myths and falsehoods. LUNGevity spoke to an expert to help sort out the facts from the fiction. In the webinar below, Gabriel Lopez, MD, medical director of the Integrative Medicine Center at MD Anderson Cancer Center, explains how integrative medicine can be safely

Chemo Shortage Didn’t Materialize ‘The Way We Initially Feared’

This March, LUNGevity Foundation partnered with CURE for their “Speaking Out” video series, inviting Amy Moore, PhD, vice president of global engagement and patient partnerships at LUNGevity Foundation, to discuss recent chemotherapy shortages. During the interview, Dr. Moore addressed the critical issues posed by the chemotherapy shortage, offering valuable insights into its origins, impact on people with lung cancer, available alternatives, and ongoing efforts to address disparities. Her expertise provides essential understanding for anyone interested in the complexities of lung cancer

Diving Deeper: Targeted Therapy, Radiation, and Immunotherapy

Lung cancer experts from Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center dive into the how and why behind targeted therapy, immunotherapy, and radiation therapy. Touching on improvements to treatment options, side effects, fertility, and much more, they answer audience questions along the way in this recorded webinar. Watch the full video or use the timestamps below to jump to a specific topic.

Clinical Trial Phases

The four phases of lung cancer clinical trials each serve a different and important purpose. From testing the safety of a new treatment to its effectiveness and long-term outcomes, this short video explains how researchers use clinical trials for new lung cancer treatments. Phases of a Clinical Trial: 1. Safety of the new treatment 2. Does the cancer respond to the treatment 3. Is this new treatment better than the current options 4. Studies the long-term benefits and side effects

Repotrectinib is Now FDA-Approved to Treat Patients with ROS1-positive NSCLC

On November 15, 2023, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced the approval of repotrectinib to treat patients with locally advanced or metastatic ROS1-positive non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Repotrectinib is part of a class of drugs called tyrosine kinase inhibitors, or TKIs, which have been beneficial for many patients with oncogene-driven lung cancers. TKIs are a type of therapy that specifically targets changes in genes that are known to promote tumor growth. Repotrectinib is the third TKI drug for ROS1-positive NSCLC but is the first to be used for patients who either have

What Is a Clinical Trial

Lung cancer clinical trials are carefully designed research studies to evaluate and learn more about new drugs and treatments. They give people the ability to participate in lung cancer research and access to new treatments that otherwise may not be available to them, all under the close supervision of medical experts.

Watch Recorded Expert Sessions From ILCSC

The International Lung Cancer Survivorship Conference (ILCSC) is a free virtual educational conference for people with lung cancer, caregivers, and advocates. The 2023 conference was held September 22-23. The recorded sessions from this conference are available to registered participants through December 21, 2023, at www.lungevity.org/ilcsc. If you did not register for the conference but would like to view the recordings, you may still register for free access. The recordings are available until December 21. The recordings provide opportunities for attendees to hear from world-renowned

Decentralized Trials: Bringing Clinical Trials Closer to the Patient

While participating in clinical trials can provide substantial benefits to people with lung cancer, the resources required to do so may pose significant hurdles, especially to those who don’t live close to where trials are held, such as academic medical centers or major oncology network sites. Decentralized clinical trials remove some hurdles to trial participation for patients and are thus important for improving trial access for larger and more diverse groups of people. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently issued a draft guidance outlining recommendations and important

We have succeeded in targeting KRAS G12C mutations. Now what?

We currently have two FDA-approved drugs, sotorasib and adagrasib, that are used to treat advanced-stage NSCLC with KRAS G12C mutations. Watch the discussion with guest speakers Rosemary Conway (patient advocate who was diagnosed with KRAS G12D-positive NSCLC) and Dr. Kathryn Arbour, MD (thoracic oncologist, assistant attending physician at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center). Dr. Arbour received a 2020 LUNGevity Career Development Award and is studying how lung cancer cells become resistant to KRAS G12C-blocking drugs.