Learn about the latest treatments for metastatic lung cancer. We’ve got it covered, from new FDA approvals to emerging approaches in immunotherapy, targeted therapy, cancer vaccines, drug combinations, antibody-drug conjugates, and more.

  • March 9, 2021 

    Just Diagnosed with Advanced Lung Cancer: What Now?

    With: Jack West, MD

    A new cancer diagnosis is overwhelming. Patients often ask their doctors, “What would you do if you were me?” Here, our Curious Dr. George asks lung cancer expert Howard (Jack) West, MD, how he would handle his own diagnosis of advanced lung cancer. Dr. West is a Princeton- and Harvard-educated oncologist with additional training and experience in Boston and Seattle focusing on lung cancer.… Read more »

  • September 1, 2020 

    Small Cell Lung Cancer (SCLC)—An OverviewBookmark

    George Lundberg, MD

    Curated by Editor in Chief George Lundberg, MD, who notes:

    Small cell lung cancer is a common, particularly deadly form of lung cancer. If you wish to learn more, this authoritative encyclopedic discussion from Medscape should be very useful (written with a physician audience in mind).

    .

  • August 15, 2020 

    NCCN Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology: 2020 UpdatesBookmark

    George Lundberg, MD

    Article from The ASCO Post curated by Editor in Chief George Lundberg, MD, who notes: 

    The National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) recently made key updates to its clinical practice guidelines. This news story provides a summary of the updates.

    Go to full news story published by The ASCO Post.

    If you’re wondering whether this story applies to your own cancer case or a loved one’s, we invite you to get support from Cancer Commons.

  • August 7, 2020 

    FDA Approves Merck’s Keytruda, Foundation Medicine CDx for TMB-High Solid TumorsBookmark

    George Lundberg, MD

    Article from GenomeWeb curated by Editor in Chief George Lundberg, MD, who notes: 

    The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the drug pembrolizumab (brand name Keytruda) for solid tumors based solely on whether they have a high tumor mutational burden—a high number of changes in the DNA of the cancer cells.

    Go to full article published by GenomeWeb.

    If you’re wondering whether this story applies to your own cancer case or a loved one’s, we invite you to get support from Cancer Commons.

  • August 7, 2020 

    Expert on Emergence of Osimertinib, New Discoveries in Lung Cancer CareBookmark

    George Lundberg, MD

    Article from Cancer Network curated by Editor in Chief George Lundberg, MD, who notes: 

    The drug osimertinib (brand name Tagrisso) is beneficial as an adjuvant therapy—treatment given in addition to tumor-removal surgery—for patients with stage IB–IIIA non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) that has a mutation in the EGFR gene.

    Go to full article published by Cancer Network.

    If you’re wondering whether this story applies to your own cancer case or a loved one’s, we invite you to get support from Cancer Commons.

  • May 30, 2020 

    FDA Approves Frontline Atezolizumab for PD-L1–High NSCLCBookmark

    George Lundberg, MD

    Article from OncLive curated by Editor in Chief George Lundberg, MD, who notes:

    The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved another new drug for people with metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) tumors that have high levels of a protein called PD-L1.

    Go to full article published by OncLive.

    If you’re wondering whether this story applies to your own cancer case or a loved one’s, we invite you to get support from Cancer Commons.

    • Show More
Everyone who has cancer or who knows someone with cancer should reach out to Cancer Commons. There is no better resource.

Friend of a gastric cancer patient

Molecular tests help match patients to the personalized treatments that are most likely to work for them. Keep up with new developments in genetic tests, blood tests, liquid biopsies, tumor mutations, other biomarkers, precision medicine, and next-generation sequencing.

  • February 21, 2020 

    Comprehensive Molecular Testing Needed for Stage IV Lung Cancer

    With: David Spigel, MD

    A Q&A with David Spigel, MD, Chief Scientific Officer, Director of the Lung Cancer Research Program, and Principal Investigator at Sarah Cannon Research Institute. Email: dspigel@tnonc.com Q: You are an expert medical oncologist with particular interest in lung cancer. The various forms of lung cancer are serious diagnoses, all potentially lethal malignancies. There are theoretical, investigational, and clinical justifications to perform molecular testing of… Read more »

  • December 3, 2020 

    Léon C. van Kempen, PhD, on a Successful Molecular Tumor Board in NSCLCBookmark

    George Lundberg, MD

    This article from MedPage Today discusses recent study findings demonstrating that patients with complex cases of non-small cell lung cancer can benefit from the insights of a molecular tumor board.

    .

  • August 15, 2020 

    FDA OKs Liquid Biopsy to Identify EGFR-Positive Lung CancerBookmark

    George Lundberg, MD

    Article from MedPage Today curated by Editor in Chief George Lundberg, MD, who notes: 

    The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved a liquid biopsy test (a type of biopsy that uses a blood draw instead of surgery) for detecting whether patients have EGFR mutations in their metastatic lung tumors, which could help guide treatment options.

    Go to full article published by MedPage Today.

    If you’re wondering whether this story applies to your own cancer case or a loved one’s, we invite you to get support from Cancer Commons.

  • October 22, 2018 

    Liquid Biopsy IDs More NSCLC Mutations, Yields Patient Therapy Response in Study of Guardant TestBookmark

    Emma Shtivelman, PhD

    Excerpt:

    “New data this week has added evidence for the value of blood-based cancer testing in non-small cell lung cancer, demonstrating in a cohort of about 300 that comprehensive liquid biopsy — in this case Guardant Health’s Guardant360 test — can help identify targeted mutations in more patients than tissue sequencing.

    “The study also found that patients treated on the basis of blood-based test results respond to treatment similarly to those treated based on tissue test results.”

    Go to full article published by GenomeWeb on Oct 12, 2018.

    If you’re wondering whether this story applies to your own cancer case or a loved one’s, we invite you to get support from Cancer Commons.

  • August 22, 2018 

    Study Describes Design, Validation of Foundation Medicine’s Blood-Based TMB TestBookmark

    Emma Shtivelman, PhD

    Excerpt from GenomeWeb:

    “Researchers from Genentech, Foundation Medicine, UC Davis, and other medical centers, have published a report on the development and early validation of Foundation’s planned blood-based tumor mutational burden test.

    “Appearing today in Nature Medicine, the study describes the development of the test and its characteristics, and its retrospective validation in two cohorts. Investigators demonstrated, by applying the assay to samples from two clinical trials, that blood-based TMB (bTMB) could reproducibly identify lung cancer patients who respond to immunotherapy treatment with Roche/Genentech’s atezolizumab (Tecentriq).”

    Go to full article published by GenomeWeb on Aug 4, 2018 (Free registration required).

    If you’re wondering whether this story applies to your own cancer case or a loved one’s, we invite you to get support from Cancer Commons.

  • January 16, 2018 

    Targetable Mutations in NSCLC: More Testing Needed!

    Emma Shtivelman, PhD

    Diagnosis of adenocarcinoma of the lung, a major subtype of non-small lung cancer (NSCLC), nowadays triggers mandatory testing of tumor tissue for alterations in four genes: EGFR, ALK, ROS1, and more recently, BRAF. If present, these alterations predict sensitivity to specific targeted drugs approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that work better and often longer than standard chemotherapy, and are better… Read more »

    • Show More

Some of the most promising new treatments for metastatic lung cancer are currently being tested in patients enrolled in clinical trials. We help you stay up to date on the latest results from these studies.

  • July 31, 2018 

    Promising Updates from Clinical Trials for Small Cell Lung Cancer

    Emma Shtivelman, PhD

    Treatment of small cell lung cancer (SCLC) has not changed much in the last 20 years. This cancer is truly one of the most difficult to treat. Even though the response rate to standard first-line chemotherapy with cisplatin and etoposide is relatively high, relapses and recurrences within months of treatment completion are practically universal, and there are no second-line treatments that really work. There… Read more »

  • August 15, 2020 

    Lung cancer at ASCO20 VirtualBookmark

    George Lundberg, MD

    Research highlight from Nature Reviews Clinical Oncology curated by Editor in Chief George Lundberg, MD, who notes: 

    This year’s virtual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology featured presentations on several different targeted therapies that appear to provide improved outcomes for lung cancer patients.

    Go to full research highlight published by Nature Reviews Clinical Oncology.

    If you’re wondering whether this story applies to your own cancer case or a loved one’s, we invite you to get support from Cancer Commons.

  • June 24, 2019 

    Regional Delivery of Mesothelin-Targeted CAR T-Cell Therapy Creates a Win for Solid TumorsBookmark

    Emma Shtivelman, PhD

    Excerpt:

    “In patients with malignant pleural disease, autologous mesothelin-targeted chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy demonstrated clinical benefit with no significant toxicity, outcomes that may be due to the regional delivery of the CAR T cells to the intrapleural cavity rather than conventional systemic delivery. The phase I trial (ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT02414269) results were presented at the 2019 American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting, held March 29–April 3 in Atlanta, Georgia (abstract CT036).”

    Go to full article published by Cancer Network on April 10, 2019.

    If you’re wondering whether this story applies to your own cancer case or a loved one’s, we invite you to get support from Cancer Commons.

     

  • December 12, 2018 

    Aggressive RT, Surgery Doubles OS in NSCLC With Limited MetsBookmark

    Emma Shtivelman, PhD

    Excerpt:

    “Aggressive local consolidation in stage IV non-small lung cancer (NSCLC) drastically improved overall survival over standard care in patients with up to three metastatic lesions, a small randomized study found.

    “Among 49 patients whose disease had not progressed after initial systemic therapy, overall survival was 41.2 months in those treated with radiotherapy or surgery compared with 17.0 months in those on standard maintenance therapy (P=0.017), reported Daniel Gomez, MD, of MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, at a press briefing here at the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) meeting.”

    Go to full article published by MedPage Today on Oct 22, 2018.

    If you’re wondering whether this story applies to your own cancer case or a loved one’s, we invite you to get support from Cancer Commons.

  • October 22, 2018 

    Pembrolizumab Plus Chemotherapy Prolongs OS, PFS for Metastatic Lung CancerBookmark

    Emma Shtivelman, PhD

    Excerpt from Healio:

    “The addition of pembrolizumab to chemotherapy extended OS and PFS compared with chemotherapy alone among patients with metastatic, squamous, non-small-cell lung cancer, according to results of the randomized phase 3 KEYNOTE-407 trial presented at International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer’s World Conference on Lung Cancer.

    “The double-blind study included 559 treatment-naive patients with metastatic, squamous NSCLC. Patients who had symptomatic central nervous system metastases, a history of noninfectious pneumonitis that required the use of glucocorticoids, active autoimmune disease or who were receiving systemic immunosuppressive treatment were excluded.”

    Go to full article published by Healio on Oct 1, 2018.

    If you’re wondering whether this story applies to your own cancer case or a loved one’s, we invite you to get support from Cancer Commons.

  • October 1, 2018 

    Repotrectinib Shows Promising Activity in ROS1+ NSCLCBookmark

    Emma Shtivelman, PhD

    Excerpt from OncLive:

    “Repotrectinib (TPX-0005) demonstrated a clinically meaningful and durable benefit across multiple doses in patients with ROS1 fusion–positive non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

    “Overall response rates (ORRs) were 80% for tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI)-naïve patients (95% CI, 44-97) and 18% for TKI-refractory patients (95% CI, 4-44), including 33% for those who received a dose of 160 mg once daily, according to findings from the ongoing phase I/II TRIDENT-1 study. Interim analysis results were presented at the 19th World Conference on Lung Cancer (WCLC).”

    Go to full article published by OncLive on Sep 24, 2018.

    If you’re wondering whether this story applies to your own cancer case or a loved one’s, we invite you to get support from Cancer Commons.

    • Show More
Now is the time to be very actively involved in your own care.

Tony Blau, MD
University of Washington

Cancer affects many aspects of life, whether you’re newly diagnosed, in the midst of treatment, or in follow-up care. Learn about ways to maintain quality of life, such as palliative care and managing side effects.

  • October 14, 2019 

    Pediatric Palliative Care: A Specialty Comes of Age

    Sarah Friebert, MD

    For a child with cancer, palliative care can provide much-needed relief from stress and symptoms—for the patient and their family alike. Palliative care is given alongside cancer treatment, and is not synonymous with “end-of-life” care. In fact, anyone with a serious illness can benefit from palliative care, no matter their long-term outlook. Because of its importance for children with cancer, we are honored to… Read more »

  • February 11, 2020 

    ‘Impressed With Impact’ of Ketamine in Cancer Palliative CareBookmark

    George Lundberg, MD

    Article from Medscape curated by Editor in Chief George Lundberg, MD, who notes: 

    Depression is, for obvious reasons, common in patients with advanced cancer. The old, inexpensive drug ketamine—already approved for medical use by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)—seems rapidly effective, according to small studies.

    Go to full article published by Medscape.

    If you’re wondering whether this story applies to your own cancer case or a loved one’s, we invite you to get support from Cancer Commons.

  • October 7, 2019 

    Emphasizing Oncogeriatrics

    With: Nicolò Matteo Luca Battisti, MD

    A Q&A with Nicolò Matteo Luca Battisti, MD, Medical Oncologist at The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, London, United Kingdom, and Chair of the Young Interest Group of the International Society of Geriatric Oncology (SIOG); nicolo.battisti@gmail.com Q: Everyone knows that the practice of pediatric oncology is very different from adult oncology. How does the growing field of oncogeriatrics differ from usual adult oncology? A:… Read more »

  • December 3, 2018 

    Best Uses of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation in Patients with Cancer

    With: Val Jones, MD

    A Q&A with Val Jones, MD, Medical Director of Admissions, Saint Luke’s Rehabilitation Institute, Spokane, WA Originally published February 1, 2017 Q: Your principal practice in Spokane, Washington is physical medicine and rehabilitation (PM&R). What do you find to be the best uses of PM&R in patients with cancer at your facility? A: Rehabilitation medicine is one of the best-kept secrets in healthcare. Although the… Read more »

  • September 14, 2018 

    Huge Progress in Palliative Care

    With: Diane E. Meier, MD, FACP

    A Q&A with Diane E. Meier, MD, FACP, Director, Center to Advance Palliative Care; Professor of Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai; New York, NY; diane.meier@mssm.edu Originally published November 8, 2017 Q: You wrote in MedGenMed in 2007 that palliative care was the job of all hospitals. In October 2017 you were honored at the National Academy of Medicine for… Read more »

  • July 23, 2018 

    Cancer Pain and the Opioid Epidemic

    George Lundberg, MD

    A Q&A with Kevin Sevarino, MD, PhD, President-elect of the American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry and Consulting Psychiatrist at Gaylord Hospital in Wallingford, CT Q: Opioid abuse, addiction, and overdose are huge American problems right now. Many cancer patents experience chronic pain. What is the best way to use opioids to manage chronic pain? [Note: The views expressed below represent the opinion of the author,… Read more »

    • Show More

You’re not alone. Read how other patients and caregivers navigated diagnosis, treatment, and life with cancer. We hope their stories provide insights and hope for your own cancer journey.

More patient stories

Learn more about what’s new in advanced cancer research and treatment, including screening and statistics, using artificial intelligence to improve treatment, and other new horizons in cancer care.

  • April 7, 2021 

    Rankings of Most Common and Deadly Cancer Types Will Shift Over Next Two Decades

    In the next two decades, rankings of incidence and death across cancer types will undergo important changes in the U.S., according to new research led by Lola Rahib, PhD, Director of Scientific and Clinical Affairs at Cancer Commons, as well as the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network (PanCAN) in collaboration with The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. Published today in JAMA Network Open,… Read more »

  • March 29, 2021 

    Can Really Big Data Inform Precise Decisions for Individual Patients?

    With: Matvey B. Palchuk, MD, MS, FAMIA

    New technologies are transforming cancer research. By optimizing research protocols and leveraging data more efficiently and intelligently, these tools hold the promise to improve personalized cancer care. Here, our Curious Dr. George asks Matvey B. Palchuk, MD, MS, FAMIA, VP of Informatics at TriNetX, LLC, about the capabilities of his company’s platform. Curious Dr. George: Translational medicine has evolved to include personalized medicine and… Read more »

  • November 10, 2020 

    How to Learn About Cancer in a Classroom: Shaping Compassionate Doctors

    With: Marin Langlieb

    The patients and caregivers we serve here at Cancer Commons rely on their doctors to provide expert, compassionate care. Building the skills to give such care can begin early in a doctor’s education. Here, for a change of pace, our Curious Dr. George asks a future doctor about a unique experience that helped her learn how to connect with cancer patients. Marin Langlieb is… Read more »

  • September 9, 2020 

    Is Cancer the Best Way to Die?

    With: Richard Smith, CBE, FMedSci

    In 2014, the prestigious medical research journal The BMJ published a controversial piece called “Dying of cancer is the best death.” Here, our Curious Dr. George asks the author of that piece, Richard Smith, CBE, FMedSci, if and how his thoughts on death have since evolved. Dr. Smith was Editor of The BMJ from 1991 to 2004 and is currently Chair of the Lancet Commission… Read more »

  • August 21, 2020 

    The Power of Precision Medicine is Exemplified by Tempus

    With: Nike Beaubier, MDNamratha Sastry, PhD

    Tempus—a tech company & partner of Cancer Commons—empowers doctors to make data-driven decisions for their patients in real time. Learn how.

  • June 29, 2020 

    Cancer Screening Programs Influence Incidence and Causes of Cancer DeathsBookmark

    Lola Rahib, PhD

    Article from ASCO Daily News curated by Director of Scientific and Clinical Affairs, Lola Rahib, PhD.

    In collaboration with MD Anderson Cancer Center and the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network, Cancer Commons presented new research at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO)’s virtual 2020 meeting. The findings show that, by 2040, we will likely see notable changes in which cancer types are most common and which are most deadly, highlighting the influence of cancer screening programs. This research was led by Dr. Rahib at Cancer Commons.

    Go to full article published by ASCO Daily News.

    If you’re wondering whether this story applies to your own cancer case or a loved one’s, we invite you to get support from Cancer Commons.

    • Show More

The coronavirus pandemic presents unprecedented challenges to cancer patients. We can help you understand how COVID-19 might impact your treatment and other aspects of your cancer care.