Dr. Carbone on Effectiveness of Different Lung Cancer Therapies

David Carbone, MD, PhD, director of the James Thoracic Center, and professor of Medicine at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center, discusses the effectiveness of different therapies to treat patients with lung cancer.

Many treatments in this space are based on a scientific knowledge of the cancers that allows oncologists to deliver highly effective therapies with lower toxicity than previously developed therapies, explains Carbone.

The challenge in the future of this treatment landscape, he says, will be converting this effectiveness into true cures, where a patient will never have to suffer and die from lung cancer. This may involve maintenance therapy, perhaps with sequential therapies, says Carbone. However, he says it is also important to note that this disease was once previously characterized as a painful, highly symptomatic cancer with a rapid progression to death. Now, with the development of so many novel treatments, significant progress is being achieved, and patients with lung cancer are seeing better and better outcomes.