J. De Grève MD, PhD

‘My ambition for the BSMO is to become the Belgian ASCO’

Checkpoint inhibitors in the first-line treatment of non-small cell lung cancer

SUMMARY

Antibodies against programmed cell death-1 (PD-1) and its ligand (PD-L1) have become standard-of-care in the second-line treatment for advanced non-small cell lung cancer after failure of first-line chemotherapy. The observed durable responses as well as the favourable toxicity profile have moved these agents to first-line studies for advanced non-small cell lung cancer. In tumours with high PD-L1 expression, pembrolizumab is registered as the preferred first-line treatment. Further studies are currently focusing on combination strategies. The major future challenge will be selecting the optimal treatment strategy for the patient.

(BELG J MED ONCOL 2017;11(8):380–385)

P.01 Targeting Polo-like kinase 1 and TRAIL enhances apoptosis in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) cells

O.10 USP13 as a novel co-target for EGFR targeted therapies in EGFR mutant non-small cell lung cancer

O.04 Type II RAF inhibition causes superior ERK suppression compared to type I RAF inhibition in different BRAF mutant types recurrently found in lung cancer

O.03 Identification of candidate breast cancer predisposition genes by sequencing extended panel of 492 cancer associated genes in BRCA1/2 negative probands

Parp inhibitors

Summary

Inhibition of Poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase 1 has relatively recently entered the clinic. The ground-breaking drug both scientifically and clinically was olaparib, but several other PARP inhibitors are in development. This treatment is the first to therapeutically exploit mutant recessive cancer genes. In this review we discuss the discovery of this treatment, the preclinical and clinical studies, as well as some future perspectives.

(BELG J MED ONCOL 2016;10(7):263–275)