Tag Archive for: personalized medicine

Expert Perspective | The Value of Empowering Patients

Expert Perspective | The Value of Empowering Patients from Patient Empowerment Network on Vimeo.

Lung cancer specialist Dr. Tejas Patil, of University of Colorado Cancer Center, explains why it’s important for lung cancer patients to feel empowered and discusses the advice he shares with patients to encourage self-advocacy.

Dr. Tejas Patil is an academic thoracic oncologist at the University of Colorado Cancer Center focused on targeted therapies and novel biomarkers in lung cancer. Learn more about Dr. Patil, here.

See More from Thrive Lung Cancer

Related Resources:

Why Lung Cancer Patient Advocacy Is Essential

Why Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer Patients Should Speak Up About Symptoms and Side Effects

When to Consider a Clinical Trial for Lung Cancer Treatment?


Transcript:

Katherine:

Dr. Patil, how do you empower patients? 

Dr. Patil:

Well, I think transparency is key. So, I tell patients what I know. I tell patients what I don’t know. I help patients ask the questions that they may want to ask, but not sure how to.  

And I think for patients it’s really important to know that ultimately my role as a provider is to be a coach and a guide. And patients really have autonomy over their bodies and their choices. Sometimes I disagree with what patients choose to do, sometimes I agree. But I will think that as long as patients are aware of the risks and benefits of any decision they’re making and do it with information, that that’s a way of empowering patients. 

Katherine:

Why is it so important for patients to be empowered? 

Dr. Patil:

I think an empowered patient is actually a patient that can make meaningful decisions, and not make emotional decisions. I think that cancer diagnoses inherently are scary.  

They come with a lot of existential concerns and patients oftentimes feel like they’re cornered. And when patients are empowered, they can feel those emotions, but also make decisions that are based more on science and some on the facts that actually affect their care. 

Katherine:

Yeah. The more information we have, the more in control we feel. 

Dr. Patil:

The more in control you are actually. 

Katherine:

Yeah. Yeah. Very true.  

Collaborating on Lung Cancer Treatment Decisions With Your Team

Collaborating on Lung Cancer Treatment Decisions With Your Team from Patient Empowerment Network on Vimeo.

Lung cancer specialist Dr. Tejas Patil discusses why active communication between patients and their healthcare team is essential when making care and treatment decisions.

Dr. Tejas Patil is an academic thoracic oncologist at the University of Colorado Cancer Center focused on targeted therapies and novel biomarkers in lung cancer. Learn more about Dr. Patil, here.

See More from Thrive Lung Cancer

Related Resources:

Expert Advice for Recently Diagnosed Lung Cancer Patients

Expert Advice for Setting Lung Cancer Treatment Goals

When to Consider a Clinical Trial for Lung Cancer Treatment?


Transcript:

Katherine:

Where does shared decision-making come into play? When does it come into play?  

Dr. Patil:

It comes in always.   

So, shared decision-making is one of the most important things that patients can do with their providers. It’s really important when we think about treatments to not just be very cookie cutter and follow a recipe book for managing a patient’s lung cancer. It’s really important to individualize therapy. This is really important where patients’ values come in. What patients want to do with the time that they have, and what patients want to do with the treatment? How do they want to take certain treatments?  

So, for example, I have a patient who’s a violinist and was faced with the possibility of receiving a type of clinical trial, but this trial caused neuropathy or numbness or tingling and would essentially render this patient unable to play the violin. This was an unacceptable treatment option for this patient, even though the data would suggest that it would work.  

And that’s an example of where shared decision-making comes in because it’s more than just treating numbers. It’s really about taking care of people. 

Katherine:

Yeah. Why is active communication between the patient and lung cancer team so important? 

Dr. Patil:

Active communication is really important because it’s really one of the easiest ways for things — So, a breakdown of communication rather is a one of the easiest ways for gaps to occur in care. And when there is active communication, when a patient feels like they have an opportunity to reach their team members to connect with their providers, it builds trust. And I think trust is one of the more important elements in the management of patients. If patients can trust their provider and trust that their judgment is sound, then there is more likely to be a harmonious relationship that facilitates the shared decision-making.  

Katherine:

When a patient is in active lung cancer treatment, how are they monitored? 

Dr. Patil:

So, patients are monitored in a variety of ways. If they’re receiving chemotherapy or immunotherapy, typically a provider will see the patient with each infusion cycle. And so, depending on the length of time and the schedule of infusions, that sort of dictates how frequently we see our patients. When patients are receiving targeted therapies, specifically the pill-based forms, they can be monitored in concordance with the NCCN guidelines. And in my practice, I typically see patients every three months with imaging.  

Now, if patients are having a hard time tolerating treatment, so they’re taking their oral pills but for whatever reason, we’re having a ton of side effects, we’re trying to figure out the dose. I might see my patients more frequently. But as a standard, if patients are tolerating their targeted treatment well, their scans look good, I usually see them every three months.  

Expert Advice for Setting Lung Cancer Treatment Goals

Expert Advice for Setting Lung Cancer Treatment Goals from Patient Empowerment Network on Vimeo.

Dr. Tejas Patil, a lung cancer specialist from the University of Colorado Cancer Center, shares advice on how lung cancer patients can work with their healthcare teams to set treatment goals.

Dr. Tejas Patil is an academic thoracic oncologist at the University of Colorado Cancer Center focused on targeted therapies and novel biomarkers in lung cancer. Learn more about Dr. Patil, here.

See More from Thrive Lung Cancer

Related Resources:

Expert Advice for Recently Diagnosed Lung Cancer Patients

Collaborating on Lung Cancer Treatment Decisions With Your Team

When to Consider a Clinical Trial for Lung Cancer Treatment?


Transcript:

Katherine:

When someone is considering therapy for non-small cell lung cancer, what advice do you have for setting treatment goals with their team? 

Dr. Patil:

So, non-small cell lung cancer has seen some remarkable progress in the last 20 years, but it’s still a very serious disease. One of the main expectations I set with patients is that I will guide them through this journey, but that there’s going to be a lot of changes in their day-to-day. When we look at someone who’s receiving targeted therapy, in general I upfront tell patients that the model that I’m trying to emulate with targeted therapies is very similar to HIV. I remind patients that in 2022, we still cannot cure HIV, but we can give a very effective antiviral therapies that put their viral count to zero.  

And patients with HIV now can live really full rich lives. And that’s the model that we’re trying to replicate with targeted therapies. With immunotherapies, I set patients the expectation that immunotherapy has been a major advance in the management of lung cancer. And many patients are living very full lives as a result of using immune therapies. But it’s not for everyone, and I do enforce and or rather emphasize is a better word, the concept of taking things day-by-day. I think it’s really helpful when patients have a diagnosis like this to not spiral out of control and think about all possible future outcomes, but to really work with the data that we have at the moment.  

Questions to Ask Before Participating in a Lung Cancer Clinical Trial

Questions to Ask Before Participating in a Lung Cancer Clinical Trial from Patient Empowerment Network on Vimeo.

When considering clinical trial participation, what questions should patients ask their healthcare team? Dr. Tejas Patil, a lung cancer specialist at the University of Colorado Cancer Center, shares advice on what patients need to know when considering joining a clinical trial.

Dr. Tejas Patil is an academic thoracic oncologist at the University of Colorado Cancer Center focused on targeted therapies and novel biomarkers in lung cancer. Learn more about Dr. Patil, here.

See More From Lung Cancer Clinical Trials 201

Related Resources:

When to Consider a Clinical Trial for Lung Cancer Treatment?

Lung Cancer Targeted Therapy: What Is It and Who Is It Right For?

Where Do Clinical Trials Fit Into a Lung Cancer Treatment Plan?


Transcript:

Katherine:

When considering clinical trial participation, what questions should patients be asking their healthcare team? 

Dr. Patil:

So, couple of questions that I think are really important for patients to ask their healthcare team is what is the current standard of care? So, if you’re enrolling in a clinical trial, you want to know that you’re receiving some kind of drug.  

And its expected effectiveness should be compared to what is considered the current standard of care for whatever line of therapy that is. The other practical questions that patients should be asking is what is the schedule of therapy? So, how frequently am I supposed to come in? Am I supposed to get a biopsy?  

Am I supposed to get blood draws? Most clinical trials will come with a schedule or a calendar for patients, and it’s helpful for them to look that over and see what’s being asked of them. And then the last thing is what are the known side effects? Now I always tell patients with a clinical trial, we don’t always know the side effects as part of the reason we’re doing the clinical trial.  

But if there’s some experience or if the doctors enrolled other similar patients in this trial asking what are the foreseeable side effects is actually really important. 

When to Consider a Clinical Trial for Lung Cancer Treatment

When to Consider a Clinical Trial for Lung Cancer Treatment from Patient Empowerment Network on Vimeo.

When it comes to non-small cell lung cancer treatment options, where do clinical trials fit in? Dr. Tejas Patil of the University of Colorado Cancer Center explains how he discusses clinical trial participation with patients.

Dr. Tejas Patil is an academic thoracic oncologist at the University of Colorado Cancer Center focused on targeted therapies and novel biomarkers in lung cancer. Learn more about Dr. Patil, here.

See More From Lung Cancer Clinical Trials 201

Related Resources:

Where Do Clinical Trials Fit Into a Lung Cancer Treatment Plan?

Lung Cancer Targeted Therapy: What Is It and Who Is It Right For?

Questions to Ask Before Participating in a Lung Cancer Clinical Trial


Transcript:

Katherine:

When it comes to non-small cell lung cancer treatment options, where do clinical trials fit in? 

Dr. Patil:

So, clinical trials are very important to advancing our knowledge and advancing our ability to care for patients in the best way possible. What I frequently get asked from patients is am I going to be a guinea pig for a clinical trial? And I think it’s really important to emphasize that clinical trials are comparing the best-known standard of care to something new.  

So, in effect you would never be a guinea pig. You would really just be receiving what is the best-known standard of care. And that would be compared to some novel approach to treating cancer. In general, I’m very encouraging of patients to enroll in clinical trials.  

I discuss the pros and cons of this because there are logistical concerns to keep in mind when patients are thinking about enrolling in clinical trials. If a patient enjoys traveling, and enjoys wanting to spend time with their family, that has to be balanced against the regimented schedule that some clinical trials may have.  

If they live in a rural part of the state and they have to travel three to four hours weekly, that’s a decision that has to be had and be made. But in general, if a patient is eligible and willing, I’m strongly encouraging that patients enroll in clinical trials to help further the knowledge of the field. 

Katherine:

Yeah. Are there clinical trial options available for patients who have already been treated with another therapy? 

Dr. Patil:

Yes. So, the clinical trials come in variety of forms and patients are eligible at various stages.  

So, there are some clinical trials that require patients to be newly diagnosed. And so, the trial would be the “first therapy” that they receive. But many trials actually I would say the majority of clinical trials in lung cancer are looking at patients who’ve progressed on the first line of treatment and are now facing the possibility of receiving second line treatments or further. So, that’s a common place for patients to enroll in clinical trials. 

The Latest Lung Cancer Research Updates From ASCO 2022

The Latest Lung Cancer Research Updates From ASCO 2022 from Patient Empowerment Network on Vimeo.

Dr. Tejas Patil from the University of Colorado Cancer Center shares the latest news in lung cancer research and treatment from the 2022 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting, including an update on immunotherapy.

Dr. Tejas Patil is an academic thoracic oncologist at the University of Colorado Cancer Center focused on targeted therapies and novel biomarkers in lung cancer. Learn more about Dr. Patil, here.

See More From INSIST! Lung Cancer

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Lung Cancer Research Highlights From ASCO 2022

Lung Cancer Targeted Therapy: What Is It and Who Is It Right For?

How Does Immunotherapy Treat Lung Cancer?


Transcript:

Katherine:

Researchers came together earlier this summer at the annual ASCO meeting. Were there highlights from the meeting that lung cancer patients should know about? 

Dr. Patil:

Right. So, the ASCO ’22 meeting this year had some really interesting publications. So, for me, the key publications that I thought were kind of interesting from ASCO ’22, 2022, one was a publication looking at the role of immunotherapy in patients who are – have a very high PD-L1 expression, so greater than 50 percent. And there’s – 

Katherine:

Reminds us what PDL is. 

Dr. Patil:

Oh, yes, of course. So, PD-L1 is a biomarker. It’s a predictive biomarker that lets us know whether some patients will benefit from immunotherapy. It’s also prognostic because if patients have a high PD-L1 score, they tend to do better with immunotherapy than patients who have a low PD-L1 score. 

Katherine:

Okay.  

Dr. Patil:

Now the interesting data that was presented was a pooled analysis of all the immunotherapy trials to date. And there’s been this ongoing question in lung cancer as to whether patients should get chemo with immunotherapy or whether they should just get immune therapy alone.  

And this study showed that if you have a very high PD-L1 score, it is potentially possible to just use immune therapy and forgo chemotherapy. And I thought that was a very interesting analysis.  

There’s also several other papers that came out as well. Mostly there was a lot of interest in something called circulating tumor DNA. So, let me just take a step back. This is a type of molecule that can be detected in the blood that can help determine whether cancer is present in your blood or not. And there was a lot of publications at ASCO looking at using a concept called minimal residual disease.  

So, when we treat patients with early-stage lung cancer, a big question is how do we know they’re cured or not cured? And a lot of abstracts and publications this ASCO were looking at this concept of minimal residual disease. So, if I can detect some cancer in your blood after you’ve had cured curative therapies, we’re – we have a problem because there’s still cancer around and we’re detecting it in the blood.  

And I think this type of approach is going to really inform how we think about early-stage lung cancer management in the future. 

What Testing Should Take Place After Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer Treatment?

What Testing Should Take Place After Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer Treatment? from Patient Empowerment Network on Vimeo.

It’s well-known that patients should undergo testing before choosing lung cancer therapy, but what testing should take place following treatment? Lung cancer specialist Dr. Tejas Patil, from the University of Colorado Cancer Center, discusses the role of testing after treatment.

Dr. Tejas Patil is an academic thoracic oncologist at the University of Colorado Cancer Center focused on targeted therapies and novel biomarkers in lung cancer. Learn more about Dr. Patil, here.

See More From INSIST! Lung Cancer

Related Resources:

How Does Biomarker Testing Impact Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer Care?

Lung Cancer Targeted Therapy: What Is It and Who Is It Right For?

Why Do Lung Cancer Patients Need Molecular Testing Before Choosing Treatment?


Transcript:

Katherine:

We know that patients should undergo testing before choosing therapy, but what testing should take place following treatment? 

Dr. Patil:

That’s a really good question. And it’s a complex question depending on the type of treatment that the patient is receiving. So, broadly speaking in lung cancer, we’ve separated the field into two types of treatments.  

Patients with lung cancers will get molecular testing at the onset, right? When they’re diagnosed to look for what’s called a driver oncogene. So, these are mutations that can be targeted with pill-based treatments. And if patients have these mutations, there’s about 10 of these right now and several in development, then the patients can receive a targeted therapy.

However, if they don’t have these mutations, then the standard of care right now is some kind of chemotherapy with immunotherapy. Now, the question asked was what kind of testing do you do after diagnosis? And that really depends on which camp you’re in. So, if you’re in the targeted therapy camp, my general practice has been to repeat molecular testing upon progression. The reason is that patients who are receiving targeted therapies typically evolved some kind of resistance to targeted therapy.  

Broadly speaking, you can categorize these as on target or off target resistance, but the major reason for doing repeat molecular testing is to understand a mechanism of resistance and then hopefully develop a new treatment with that knowledge. Now for the camp that doesn’t receive targeted therapies, let’s say they receive chemotherapy and immunotherapy, there it gets a little bit more nuanced.  

And if there is a role for repeating a biopsy and looking for dynamic changes in the patient’s cancer, but it is not routine and should be done with consultation with a thoracic oncologist. And really the idea here is that if patients who are on chemo immunotherapy progress, any additional molecular testing should really help inform what the next line of treatment will be and sometimes that can be a clinical trial.  

Why Lung Cancer Patient Advocacy Is Essential

Why Lung Cancer Patient Advocacy Is Essential from Patient Empowerment Network on Vimeo.

Dr. Estelamari Rodriguez, a lung cancer specialist, discusses the importance of patient advocacy in lung cancer care. Dr. Rodriguez shares how self-advocacy can impact cancer care and how being vocal as a patient advocate can help others in the lung cancer community.

Dr. Estelamari Rodriguez is Associate Director of Community Outreach – Thoracic Oncology at the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of Miami Health System. Learn more about Dr. Rodriguez, here.

See More from Thrive Lung Cancer

Related Resources:

Expert Advice for Recently Diagnosed Lung Cancer Patients

Why Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer Patients Should Speak Up About Symptoms and Side Effects

What Is the Difference Between Small Cell and Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer?


Transcript:

Katherine Banwell:

Why is it so important for patients to share their symptoms and side effects that they’re having with their healthcare team? 

Dr. Estelamari Rodriguez:

So, there are two types of advocacy. There’s the advocacy that you do at your personal level, so if the patient is not telling us that they’re having side effects, weeks can go by and these things don’t get addressed. So, you have to be your own advocate, your family can be a great advocate. It doesn’t matter who you are, if we don’t know your side effects, and you’re not communicating that, we’re not able to impact, and intervene early. But there’s a bigger message of advocacy that is extremely important, specifically in lung cancer for decades. 

I mean, I think for a long time we didn’t have a lot of lung cancer advocates because people were not surviving lung cancer. And now, that we have people live years with lung cancer, metastatic cancer, and really are coming off treatment, now we have patients that can be the guiding light. 

They can tell other patients about how they did, their side effects, can tell their story about how targeted treatment impacted their prognosis. So, advocacy is critical, we don’t have a lot of advocacy in lung cancer. We need advocates in every community, rural communities, urban communities, African Americans, Hispanics, Native Americans. In every community there is someone who’s impacted by lung cancer.   

I think that you get something out of it, you feel like you’re helping other people, you’re definitely making people aware. And hopefully, if a legislator hears your story, because last night I was at an advocacy summit, and we had a legislator, and we were asking what really moves legislators to invest in research. And he’s like, “It’s not letter, it’s not emails, it’s these personal stories from patients, and patient advocates.” And we don’t have those stories unless people come out and say and tell them. But they really make people invest, and they really prioritize the importance of research. And that would help you also because if there’s more research, then your next treatment will be funded faster. 

Expert Advice for Recently Diagnosed Lung Cancer Patients

Expert Advice for Recently Diagnosed Lung Cancer Patients from Patient Empowerment Network on Vimeo.

A lung cancer diagnosis can be overwhelming. Lung cancer specialist Dr. Estelamari Rodriguez shares key advice for recently diagnosed patients, including tips related to essential testing and preparing for appointments.

Dr. Estelamari Rodriguez is Associate Director of Community Outreach – Thoracic Oncology at the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of Miami Health System. Learn more about Dr. Rodriguez, here.

See More from Thrive Lung Cancer

Related Resources:

Why Lung Cancer Patient Advocacy Is Essential

Why Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer Patients Should Speak Up About Symptoms and Side Effects

Fact or Fiction? Busting Myths About Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer


Transcript:

Katherine Banwell:

What key advice do you have for recently diagnosed lung cancer patients? 

Dr. Estelamari Rodriguez:

I think that a couple of things. When it’s a diagnosis of lung cancer, it’s very overwhelming, and fortunately now there’s a lot of resources online, but at the beginning there’s a lot of information that you don’t know. So, sometimes if you go online all you do is get scared. I think that you need to answer some very specific questions from your doctor. What is your stage? And then, after your stage, my next question is; what is a molecular driver of my tumor, the sequencing of my tumor?  

In the past, we thought all the lung cancers were the same, but now we know they’re many, many different types of lung cancer. And they’re the EGFR-driven cancers, the ALK, the ROS, they’re all different, they all have different treatment options. And when you go and look online, there’s organized advocacy groups around each of these mutations, and then you can get better information, and valuable kind of insight from the information that is out there. So, I think the first thing is to before you go in the internet, talk to your doctor about your stage and require, not ask lightly.  

Require that your genetic mutation, your sequencing is done at the time of diagnosis of advanced lung cancer. Because that would really determine your treatment.  

So, I think that is very important for patients that get diagnosed. And then also, understand that there are a lot of resources out there, so that you need to ask for questions, bring someone with you. During COVID a lot of the clinics were closed, but we were able to have family members join virtually the visits, and now patients can come in with their family members. 

I find that having someone else in the room who wrote answers and wrote notes, will really help you kind of get the most out of your consultation. And also ask questions for the next time you come, or we have a portal where patients ask questions online. So, the first visit where you get the most questions answered, and sometimes it’s part B and part C. So, you have to keep until you feel satisfied that you understand the plan. We also tell patients that doctors don’t know everything, sometimes the doctor that you have is not the one that you feel you have a connection with. So, know that you have rights, and there are other doctors out there, and you can get second opinions. 

So, you are the best advocate, it’s your life, and you can rely on your doctor, and their physician extenders, physician assistants, nurses, to get as much as you can from that. But also, look outside of your institution, maybe there’s a better option for you. 

How Does Immunotherapy Treat Lung Cancer?

How Does Immunotherapy Treat Lung Cancer? from Patient Empowerment Network on Vimeo.

How does immunotherapy work? Dr. Estelamari Rodriguez, a lung cancer specialist, explains how immunotherapy harnesses the immune system to kill cancer cells and how this treatment approach is transforming lung cancer care.

Dr. Estelamari Rodriguez is Associate Director of Community Outreach – Thoracic Oncology at the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of Miami Health System. Learn more about Dr. Rodriguez, here.

See More From INSIST! Lung Cancer

Related Resources:

 
What Treatments Are Available for Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer?

Immunotherapy for Lung Cancer Treatment: What to Expect

Understanding Biomarker Testing for Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer Treatment

Understanding Biomarker Testing for Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer Treatment


Transcript:

Katherine Banwell:

What is immunotherapy, and how does it work to treat lung cancer?  

Dr. Estelamari Rodriguez:

So, immunotherapy technically can be used to treat almost every cancer. So, it’s this concept that over time the cancer cells learn to bypass the immune surveillance, which is the way that your body identifies cells that are abnormal and gets rid of them.  

Your immune system can do that. And over time cancer grows and grows faster because your immune cells don’t even recognize that the cancer cells are there. So, immune therapy, specifically the checkpoint inhibitors, they target a receptor that is overexpressed in cancer cells, that make cancer cells invisible to the immune system. So, when you use, for example, some of these antibodies that bind the PD-L1, the programmed death ligand-1 receptor, that in itself gets rid of that veil that is covering the tumor cells. And now, your immune system can recognize the cancer. 

And that is one way of activating the immune system against the cancer, checkpoint inhibitors. There are newer drugs that are coming in the market, newer kind of engineered immune cells that will, in the future, be able to be developed for that specific cell. And in a way, immune therapy is more natural because you’re not getting a chemotherapy is that causes nausea or hair loss.  

You’re getting your immune system kind of ramped up, activated, against your cancer cells. It can have side effects of when you activate all these immune cells, you can cause inflammation in the body that has to be monitored, and some patients can be serious. And also, people have developed autoimmune kind of antibody reactions. So, there is a lot of monitoring that needs to be done. It’s given intravenously. We have doses now that last up to six weeks in some of the major immunotherapies that we use, like pembrolizumab, so you don’t have to come all the time. 

And I think the one thing that I’ve seen that is very promising about immunotherapy is that if you activate your immune system, almost like when you were young you got a vaccine, and you don’t have to get it every year, you have a memory response against that virus. Immunotherapy can achieve that for about 20 to 30 percent of patients today, where they get this memory against the cancer cells, and they could potentially come off treatment. 

Lung Cancer Targeted Therapy: What Is It and Who Is It Right For?

Lung Cancer Targeted Therapy: What Is It and Who Is It Right For? from Patient Empowerment Network on Vimeo.

How does targeted therapy work? Dr. Estelamari Rodriguez defines targeted therapy and shares how this personalized treatment approach attacks lung cancer cells.

Dr. Estelamari Rodriguez is Associate Director of Community Outreach – Thoracic Oncology at the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of Miami Health System. Learn more about Dr. Rodriguez, here.

See More From INSIST! Lung Cancer

Related Resources:

Why Do Lung Cancer Patients Need Molecular Testing Before Choosing Treatment?

How Does Immunotherapy Treat Lung Cancer?

Understanding Biomarker Testing for Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer Treatment

Understanding Biomarker Testing for Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer Treatment


Transcript:

Katherine Banwell:

What is targeted therapy and who might it be right for? 

Dr. Estelamari Rodriguez:

So, targeted therapy kind of falls under the umbrella of precision medicine, where if you find a genetic driver, a mutation that is making that cancer grow. And out there we have drugs, we already have nine that are targeting specific genetic changes.  

The targeted therapy is really that treatment, either a pill, or an injection that goes after the genetic driver. And that, in a way, I describe to patients like you have a switch that went on and caused the cancer growth, and now with the targeted therapy we can put that switch off. And those treatments are very important because as they have evolved, they have kind of fill the gaps that chemotherapy had for patients. So, the one thing about targeted therapy is that because you’re going after one specific change, many times they’re less toxic. 

So, cytotoxic chemotherapy to kill lung cancer cells has to unfortunately kill a lot of good cancer cells in your body, specifically red cells, white cells, and platelets. So, that your body has to recover from all this normal tissue that dies, the normal cells that get impacted by the cytotoxic chemotherapy. In targeted therapy there is side effects, but a lot of them are decreased compared to chemo. 

And they’re really going after cells that have this mutation. So, preferentially you’re attacking the cancer and not the whole body. So, that’s an extra advantage for patients. And as we have patients live longer on these treatments, toxicity, and cause, all these things are really critical so that we develop better drugs that are even more specific targeting only what needs to be targeted and cause less side effects. 

Why Do Lung Cancer Patients Need Molecular Testing Before Choosing Treatment?

Why Do Lung Cancer Patients Need Molecular Testing Before Choosing Treatment? from Patient Empowerment Network on Vimeo.

How do a patient’s genetic mutations impact lung cancer treatment? Lung cancer specialist Dr. Estelamari Rodriguez emphasizes the importance of undergoing biomarker testing, also referred to as molecular testing, to identify genetic mutations, which may lead to a more personalized lung cancer therapy.

Dr. Estelamari Rodriguez is Associate Director of Community Outreach – Thoracic Oncology at the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of Miami Health System. Learn more about Dr. Rodriguez, here.

See More From INSIST! Lung Cancer

Related Resources:

Which Tests Do You Need Before Choosing a Lung Cancer Treatment?

What Are the Goals of Lung Cancer Treatment?

Lung Cancer Targeted Therapy: What Is It and Who Is It Right For?


Transcript:

Katherine Banwell:

What is molecular testing? 

Dr. Estelamari Rodriguez:

So, that is very critical for lung cancer patients today. So, molecular testing is when we get tumor cells, and we analyze the genetic changes that lead to that tumor growth. And that can be done today in different ways. The usual goal standard have been to do a biopsy of the tumor, and then do next generation sequencing when we analyze many, many genes that can impact cancer growth, and then we get a signature what drives that cancer. And in doing that, we discovered that some patients, for example, regardless of who they are, women or men, smokes or non-smokers, they may have a genetic driver that we have a treatment for, that does better than chemotherapy. 

So, that is important that you identify that as early as possible.  

Katherine Banwell:

Why is it necessary for patients to undergo molecular testing prior to a lung cancer treatment plan? 

Dr. Estelamari Rodriguez:

So, it is extremely critical because we have data today that several of these targeted treatments, the improvement of survival is not in the span of months, it’s in the span of years. 

People will do years better if they started with the treatment for their specific cancer driver mutation than if they received chemotherapy.  

We also saw that when immunotherapy came in the market a lot of patients, rightly so, doctors thought, “This is the best new thing, let’s put this patient on immunotherapy” and they were not testing patients for mutations before they started. And we found out two things, one is that there is toxicity if you give immunotherapy followed by some of the targeted therapies, specifically one called osimertinib (Tagrisso), so that you could cause harm.  

And then, number two, that immunotherapy doesn’t work in every case. A lot of patients with targeted driver mutations, they do better with a targeted treatment than they will do with chemotherapy and immunotherapy. So, I think it is important to define that early. We also now have approval for at least one targeted therapy after surgery. 

So, even patients that are early stage, which is not the majority of patients, but those patients also will get an improvement if they have an EGFR mutation specifically if they receive that targeted pill treatment after surgery. So, understanding the tumor is important so you can select the right treatment for the patient.  

Now, this is a dynamic thing, so tumors can evolve over time. So, there are many times that patients come to us for second opinions, and we actually recommend a repeat biopsy to understand the new genetic signature of that tumor because we may find a new option that was not there at the beginning. 

Where Do Clinical Trials Fit Into a Lung Cancer Treatment Plan?

Where Do Clinical Trials Fit Into a Lung Cancer Treatment Plan? from Patient Empowerment Network on Vimeo.

Clinical trial participation is essential to advancing cancer care options. Dr. Estelamari Rodriguez shares how clinical trials are providing lung cancer patients with more treatment approaches and discusses the safety protocols in place to protect patients.

Dr. Estelamari Rodriguez is Associate Director of Community Outreach – Thoracic Oncology at the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of Miami Health System. Learn more about Dr. Rodriguez, here.

See More From Lung Cancer Clinical Trials 201

Related Resources:

Lung Cancer Research Highlights From ASCO 2022

Lung Cancer Targeted Therapy: What Is It and Who Is It Right For?

Expert Advice for Recently Diagnosed Lung Cancer Patients


Transcript:

Katherine Banwell:

Dr. Rodriguez, research advances aren’t possible without patients participating in clinical trials. 

So, where do clinical trials actually fit into a lung cancer treatment plan? 

Dr. Estelamari Rodriguez:

So, clinical trials are really what move the science of all these developments that we saw at the oncology conference, the ASCO conference.  

So, it’s not until patients join trials that we can approve drugs. So, I think clinical trials are very important, so we move the science. But then, for specific patients in lung cancer, now that we’re moving all of our best therapies upfront, we run out of options faster than we did for some patients. So, it is important that A) that we have access to clinical trials, which if we look across the country many of our cancer patients don’t have either Phase I programs near them, they’re very difficult to get to, or very expensive to get to. 

So, we have to do a lot in terms of increasing access to clinical trials. 

But I think your specific question has to do where it comes in. I think if you have advanced lung cancer, where most patients today will not have a cure, clinical trials is at the center of things that should be considered from the get-go. Sometimes some of the drugs are what is called Phase I, that these are new drugs that we’re trying to find a dose, we don’t really understand the efficacy of the drugs. So, those trials are reserved for patients that have failed standard treatment. 

But then we have patients with very difficult situations that are progressing really fast that should join clinical trials. And I think that as we do more biomarker testing, we are learning a lot about the individual patient tumor.  

So, the promise of precision medicine is that you can actually find drugs for specific patients, and that’s what clinical trials that are called basket trials, where if you have a mutation regardless of your tissue of origin. So, for example, we have two large basket trials that we are enrolling patients, one called the TAPUR trial and the other one called MATCH.  

And MATCH is organized by the NCI and TAPUR by ASCO, and these trials if you find you have a biomarker analysis of next generation sequence, you find a specific mutation, you can actually see there’s a trial for this specific patient. So, the trials come in, I think they’re very critical to move the science, they’re very important for individual patients with rare mutations, but I think it’s upon us to make sure that these trials are available.   

Katherine Banwell:

What advice do you have for patients who may be hesitant to participate in a clinical trial? 

Dr. Estelamari Rodriguez:

So, I think you have to ask questions, I think that there’s a lot of misconceptions in different communities. So, we take care of a lot of Hispanic patients, and we have kind of really have to do a lot of education about what patients and patients family’s think about. Because sometimes I feel I have to convince the family members before I can get to really talk to the patient about the trials. 

But I think in the past, trials have been considered only experimental, and patients are used for science but not really getting a benefit. So, I think that’s the first misconception. When we open a trial at our cancer center, and I’m part of the experimental therapeutics’ unit, we are opening trials that we believe that that science will move and offer something in addition. So, I think, that is not because we want to do an experiment, it’s because we really want to offer this patient the latest, or something new, that could potentially offer them a better response than what we are achieving with our standard treatments. 

So, I think that’s the first misconception, that these are experiments on patients and patients don’t benefit. The whole point of the trial is to find better drugs and benefit.  

So, it’s been shown in multiple parts of the country and big cancer centers that patients that join clinical trials do better at the stage of their disease. And part of the reason that they do better is that instead of having one doctor that is making decisions, and they’re running out of options, and kind of coming up with ideas out of nowhere, when you join a Phase I clinical trial or an organized trial, you have at least 10 to 20 doctors that are looking at your case or reviewing your images. There’s a lot of check to make sure that you’re not getting unwanted toxicity and that the trial is stopped if you’re not getting a benefit. 

And this is important so that we don’t expose more patients to toxicity, but that’s another misconception that it’s not safe. And we’ll do our best to make sure that it’s safe. 

Lung Cancer Research Highlights From ASCO 2022

Lung Cancer Research Highlights From ASCO 2022 from Patient Empowerment Network on Vimeo.

Lung cancer specialist Dr. Estelamari Rodriguez shares research updates from the 2022 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) annual meeting, including the latest advances in immunotherapy and inhibitor therapy.

Dr. Estelamari Rodriguez is Associate Director of Community Outreach – Thoracic Oncology at the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of Miami Health System. Learn more about Dr. Rodriguez, here.

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Transcript:

Katherine Banwell:

Cancer researchers recently came together at the annual ASCO meeting. Were there any highlights at the meeting that you think lung cancer patients should know about? 

Dr. Estelamari Rodriguez:

So, sometimes we look at the conference, and we look at the plenary sessions. And if we don’t see a lung cancer abstract centered at the big plenary session, we feel that nothing happened, but a lot happened. We are learning that all the advances in terms of immunotherapy and targeted therapies can be used earlier and earlier for patients. So, we had data on the NADIM trial, which is a trial out of Spain where they use neoadjuvant, chemo immunotherapy. 

We already have that approved in the United States with nivolumab (Opdivo), and they use also nivolumab with a different combination chemotherapy. What was really amazing is that you can replicate this data that is used in immunotherapy before surgery, patients can have very dramatic pathologic complete responses. Which means that at the time of surgery, we don’t find cancer, and that portends a better prognosis. And obviously, we’re trying to do our best for patients. So, that was really, I think, confirms the data that we have seen that immunotherapy can be used earlier.  

We also saw updates of trials that had been ongoing looking at the use of immunotherapy in difficult settings. So, there was a trial also out of Spain called the ATEZO-BRAIN trial where they look at the use of immunotherapy Atezolizumab for patients that have brain disease and diagnosis of metastatic disease.  

And for a long time, we thought that immunotherapy responses really wouldn’t work in the brain, and we saw that in this trial they were able to control disease in the brain, delay the use of radiation for these patients, and improve their quality of life. So, I think that was, again, a strong message that immunotherapy is here to stay, we can use it in your patients. Then, the third section of trials that were very telling were updates of new drugs for targeted therapy. So, we know today that we have about nine actionable mutations in lung cancer.  

So, that is very important that we understand that when a patient gets diagnosed, do they have an actionable mutation, a genetic change that we can target? And that is really the promise of precision medicine, so they present the data for a new drug for KRAS G12C mutation, positive patients call it aggressive. And we already have a drug that was approved about a year ago called sotorasib. 

And these drugs are used on patients that previously we knew will do very poorly with chemotherapy and immunotherapy because this KRAS G12C mutation is actually a very common mutation in lung cancer, more common than the other mutations that we have approved targeted therapies in the past, and it’s been difficult to treat.  

So now, we have another drug that shows a very good response rate after patients have failed chemo and immunotherapy. It’s still not as a dramatic response as we have seen on the third generation EGFR, ALK and ROS inhibitors, but still a really good promise for patients that didn’t have an option. 

So, that was good, they also updated more data on some of the third-generation drugs for ALK. So, we have seen in a prior conference called ACR the drug lorlatinib (Lorbrena), which a third-generation ALK inhibitor, has showed already improvements for patients that have failed prior therapies.  

But now they’re showing that for patients in the frontline setting when they first diagnose, receiving a third generation ALK inhibitor can improve brain responses. So, they saw a very dramatic has a ratio of .8, so basically over 80 percent of the brain disease was controlled, and in some complete responses were seen. 

And then, patients had a median survival that was over the three-year mark, which had been seen with the prior ALK inhibitors. So, I think it just goes to show that the progress in targeted therapies for lung cancers is exponential, that once we understand the genetic pathways, and we can develop better drugs. 

For example, this lorlatinib drug was actually developed in a way that it will stay in the brain longer, because we know that that’s an area where patients have failed. So, really understanding where the prior drugs have failed, where this resistance has been happened, allows us to develop better drugs for patients. So, I think it’s definitely very hopeful conference. I think the best part of the conference was people coming together, because I think that’s when investigators have the opportunity to collaborate and think of new ideas. 

So, I think that we don’t take it for granted that we were able to have an in-person conference, which hadn’t happened in two years. We had patient advocates that joined as well, so that’s also very important that the patient advocates are part of the research program, and ideas, and presentations. 

What Is Precision Medicine for MPNs?

What Is Precision Medicine for MPNs? from Patient Empowerment Network on Vimeo.

Myeloproliferative neoplasm (MPN) patients have the option of precision medicine in the treatment toolbox. Dr. Kristen Pettit from Rogel Cancer Center shares insight about some forms of precision medicine, disease-specific factors, and potential future treatments for personalized medicine.

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Transcript:

Dr. Kristen Pettit:

Precision medicine or personalized medicine can take many forms in the MPN field, certainly decisions about whether to consider something like a stem cell transplant or personalized based on disease-specific factors such as the prognostic risk of the individual disease and based on person-specific factors, for example, the patient’s symptoms, their quality of life, their goals, and their other medical issues. Similar personalized factors go into other treatment decisions such as whether or not to start a JAK inhibitor or other treatment as well.

In the future, I think MPN care will continue to see more personalization, perhaps even involving information like specific genetic mutations, for example, there are drugs that are in development that may target on mutant calreticulin, so those might be possibly more specific treatments for folks just with those CALR mutations.