Category Archives: Lung cancer

Patients can live a median of 6.8 years after stage 4 diagnosis

Posted on February 13, 2019 by admin

A study of 110 patients at the University of Colorado found that 50% of patients live 6.8 years or longer. These were patients who had access to multiple ALK inhibitors through clinical trials at that research University. That University also … Continue reading →

Posted in alectinib - Alecensa from Chugai - Roche - GenenTech, brigatinib-Alunbrig from Takeda, ceritinib - Zykadia from Novartis, crizotinib - Xalkori from Pfizer, lorlatinib - Lorbrena by Pfizer, Lung cancer, Research | Leave a comment

Brigatinib vs Crizotinib phase 3 interim results

Posted on February 13, 2019 by admin

In September 2018, Takeda reported a pre-designated first interim analysis of a phase 3 trial in the New England Journal of Medicine. The study enrolled 275 ALK inhibitor naive patients. Half got Brigatinib and half got Crizotinib. For Brigatinib: at … Continue reading →

Posted in Brain metastases, brigatinib-Alunbrig from Takeda, crizotinib - Xalkori from Pfizer, Lung cancer, Research | Leave a comment

FDA conditionally approves Loralatinib

Posted on November 3, 2018 by admin

As of 11-2-2018 the FDA conditionally approved Loralatinib. It’s brand name is Lorbrena. The approval is for Loralatinib treatment for patients: 1) as a third line after crizotinib and one other ALK inhibitor (basically Brigatinib), or 2) as a second line treatment … Continue reading →

Posted in alectinib - Alecensa from Chugai - Roche - GenenTech, Brain metastases, brigatinib-Alunbrig from Takeda, ceritinib - Zykadia from Novartis, crizotinib - Xalkori from Pfizer, lorlatinib - Lorbrena by Pfizer, Lung cancer, Potential Treatments, Regulatory applications & approvals | Leave a comment

Impact of EML4-ALK Variants on resistance

Posted on June 15, 2018 by admin

As of April 20, 2018 Study of 2 groups of patients. Group A = 129 patients, Group B = 577 patients. The most frequent variants were Variant 1 (43%) and Variant 3 (40%). “ALK resistance mutations were significantly more common … Continue reading →

Posted in lorlatinib - Lorbrena by Pfizer, Lung cancer, Potential Treatments, Research, Resistance to treatment | Leave a comment

Liquid Biopsy can be used to track evolution of resistance

Posted on June 15, 2018 by admin

As of January 23, 2018 and March 29, 2018: Plasma genotyping by Next Generation Sequencing (Liquid Biopsy) can be used to track evolution of resistance to various ALK inhibitors. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5785105/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29599410

Posted in Lung cancer, Research | Leave a comment

FDA approves alectinib (Alecensa) as 1st line treatment

Posted on June 15, 2018 by admin

As of November 6, 2017 FDA approves alectinib (Alecensa) as 1st line treatment based on Phase 3 results. The estimated median Progression Free Survival (PFS) for patients taking alectinib was 25.7 months, compared with 10.4 months for those taking crizotinib. The … Continue reading →

Posted in alectinib - Alecensa from Chugai - Roche - GenenTech, Brain metastases, Lung cancer, Potential Treatments, Regulatory applications & approvals | Leave a comment

Phase 1 & 2 full results for Lorlatinib

Posted on June 15, 2018 by admin

As of Oct. 16, 2017 Pfizer presented a Press release associated with a presentation at IASLC on Phase 2 results for 275 patients. All following are for ALK+ patients except where Ros1 is indicated Treatment Naive:  ORR 90%; IC-ORR 75% Prior … Continue reading →

Posted in Brain metastases, lorlatinib - Lorbrena by Pfizer, Lung cancer, Potential Treatments, Research, Side Effects | Leave a comment

Great page with very high quality info on AlK & AlK inhibitors

Posted on June 16, 2017 by admin

Below is a link to a page that provides comprehensive regularly updated info written by two ALK research oncologists Dr. Alice Shaw and Ben Solomon, Phd (then edited by three people). It is written for an audience of doctors and … Continue reading →

Posted in alectinib - Alecensa from Chugai - Roche - GenenTech, Brain metastases, brigatinib-Alunbrig from Takeda, ceritinib - Zykadia from Novartis, crizotinib - Xalkori from Pfizer, lorlatinib - Lorbrena by Pfizer, Lung cancer, Potential Treatments | Leave a comment

Roche at ASCO with Alectinib findings

Posted on June 6, 2017 by admin

Roche (Genentech) announced on June 6, 2017 at the 2017 ASCO conference that the have results from their first line Phase 3 Global Trial that Alectinib had a median PFS of 25.7 months vs 10.4 months for Crizotinib (over a … Continue reading →

Posted in alectinib - Alecensa from Chugai - Roche - GenenTech, Brain metastases, crizotinib - Xalkori from Pfizer, Lung cancer, Potential Treatments, Research | Leave a comment

Zykadia (ceritinib) by Novartis is approved for first line use in US

Posted on June 6, 2017 by admin

As of May 26, 2017 the FDA approved ceritinib for first line use. So it will go head to head with crizotinib. One article said a similar EU approval was likely “in coming weeks”. The results are based on the … Continue reading →

Posted in Brain metastases, ceritinib - Zykadia from Novartis, Lung cancer, Potential Treatments, Regulatory applications & approvals, Research | Leave a comment