Dr. Wakelee on Proteomic Testing in Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer

Heather Wakelee, MD, associate professor of medicine, oncology division, Stanford University Medical Center, discusses VeriStrat testing for patients with non-small cell lung cancer.

VeriStrat testing is a proteomic test designed to distinguish which patients would see a minimal benefit from EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitors, such as erlotinib. The test is aimed at patients who do not have an EGFR mutation.

If a physician plans to administer erlotinib to patients in the second- or third-line setting, the VeriStrat test can be done first to see if they will have any benefit from the treatment.

For patients who test Veristrat “poor,” they are unlikely to benefit from erlotinib nor chemotherapy. Those who test Veristrat “good” are predicted to have more success with erlotinib and other single agent chemotherapies.

It is unclear how much EGFR-TKI’s will be utilized for these pan-wild-type patients in the future in community and academic settings, with the recent introduction of other therapies beyond erlotinib and single-agent chemo.