The American Society for Clinical Oncology (ASCO) has issued a new guideline for the treatment of stage IV non-small cell lung cancer. The new guidelines call for the use of 2 new monoclonal antibodies in patients whose disease has progressed after treatment with a platinum-based therapy.
ASCO has issued a new “Systemic Therapy for Stage IV Non-Small-Cell Lung Cancer Guideline." The new guidance calls for the use of two new monoclonal antibodies in patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) whose disease has progressed after treatment with a platinum-based chemotherapy.
The new guidance was developed in order to answer the following question: “What systemic therapy treatment options should be offered to patients with stage IV NSCLC, depending on the subtype of the patient’s cancer?”
The ASCO committee conducted a systematic review of the literature and developed a “clinical practice guideline update targeted at health care providers (including medical oncologists, nurses, social workers, and any other relevant members of comprehensive multidisciplinary cancer care teams), and patients and their caregivers in North America and beyond.”
A Major Shift
ASCO issued a Special Announcement on October 19, 2015:
The U.S. FDA approved a monoclonal antibody agent for patients with NSCLC non-squamous histologies with progression on or after platinum-based chemotherapy on October 9, 2015, expanding upon the FDA’s previous approval for patients with metastatic squamous NSCLC with progression on or after platinum-based chemotherapy on March 4, 2015. The FDA also approved a second monoclonal antibody for the treatment of patients with metastatic NSCLC whose tumors express PD-L1 with disease progression on or after platinum-containing chemotherapy on October 2, 2015. ASCO guidelines are updated on a regular basis and the data accompanying these approvals will be examined during the next guideline update.
Other agents have also been approved for patients whose tumor has grown during or following treatment with platinum-based chemotherapy.
The More Things Change …
These new guidelines give clinicians more freedom in how patients are treated, and which patients receive treatment. The guidelines stress that “Decisions on chemotherapy should not be made on the basis of age alone. They also reiterate that “there is no cure for patients with stage IV NSCLC.”
Given that there is no cure, the guidelines can help clinicians extend both the lifespan of patients with stage IV disease as well as their healthspan.
The entire report can be found at Systemic Therapy for Stage IV Non–Small-Cell Lung Cancer: American Society of Clinical Oncology Clinical Practice Guideline Update.
