Targeted Therapies and Their Role in Treating Lung Cancer - 06/21/22 - Lung Cancer Living Room™

Join this month's Lung Cancer Living Room episode as Danielle Hicks, Chief Patient Officer for GO2 Foundation for Lung Cancer, has an in-depth and wide-ranging conversation with Dr. Ross Camidge all about biomarkers and targeted therapies. They discuss what a biomarker is, and talk through genomic testing (molecular profiling) and the advantages of a comprehensive genomic profile versus a test that looks for a smaller range of biomarkers. They analyze the specifics of biopsies - both tissue and blood based - and how they can work together. And from mutations, to gene rearrangements, to gene amplifications - they review the three main variants behind the biomarkers driving many lung cancers. Should non-small cell lung cancer patients and small cell lung cancer patients all prioritize getting molecular testing? How do targeted therapies work? Are we close to identifying an inherited gene for lung cancer? All of these questions are considered. They talk about specific biomarkers such as MET exon 14, EGFR, ALK, etc. They also go over when to rebiopsy, and how long to stay on targeted therapies, if one should ever go off them, and whether they should be used as maintenance or in combination with other therapies (adjuvant therapy). Finally they reflect on clinical trials, when they are appropriate, and Danielle discusses the GO2 LungMATCH program. This is an extremely informative and animated conversation with a true expert on lung cancer biomarkers and targeted therapies.
Filmed on June 21, 2022. Edited version.