Dr. Wakelee on Continued Maintenance in Lung Cancer

Heather Wakelee, MD, associate professor, Stanford University School of Medicine, discusses continued maintenance therapy in lung cancer.

Continued maintenance with platinum or older taxanes is not possible because of toxicity issues. However, there is not as much of a challenge with pemetrexed and gemcitabine, Wakelee says.

There is strong data supporting continued maintenance with pemetrexed — the PARAMOUNT trial showed clear progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) benefit. Trials looking at gemcitabine have been less definitive, Wakelee says, as most have shown PFS benefit but not a statistically-significant OS benefit.

There is an ongoing trial looking at nab-paclitaxel as maintenance therapy.