Dr. Halmos on Actionable Biomarkers in NSCLC

Balazs Halmos, MD, MS, director of thoracic oncology and clinical cancer genomics at Albert Einstein Cancer Center and Montefiore Medical Center, discusses actionable biomarkers in patients with oncogene-driven non—small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

There are currently 8 validated biomarkers for which there are FDA approved or investigational agents in lung cancer. These include EGFR, ALK, ROS, BRAF, MET, NTRK, HER2, and RET, explains Halmos. KRAS will likely be added to this list soon due to promising data with AMG 510 in patients with KRAS G12C-mutated NSCLC. Molecular testing on tissue as well as liquid biopsies using circulating tumor DNA are available to ensure drivers are being tested for, says Halmos.

In patients with no actionable alterations, available treatments include single-agent immunotherapy and chemoimmunotherapy. Though, dual checkpoint inhibition is also under evaluation, according to Halmos. Positive data regarding single-agent immunotherapy have been reported in the phase III KEYNOTE-024, KEYNOTE-042, and IMpower110 trials. These studies also demonstrate the clinical utility of PD-L1 as a biomarker of response to single-agent immunotherapy, concludes Halmos.

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