A New Era of Hope in Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer Care

Announcer:
Welcome to Project Oncology on ReachMD. Today, we’ll hear from Dr. Geoffrey Oxnard, who’s an Associate Professor of Hematology and Medical Oncology at Boston University Chobanian and Avedisian School of Medicine. He’ll be reflecting on positive changes in the management of non-small cell lung cancer.

Here’s Dr. Oxnard now.

Dr. Oxnard:
If I see one impediment to achieving great outcomes in the care of lung cancer, I think it's that people haven't gotten the memo. They haven't gotten the word that patients are doing better, right? All of us as lung cancer doctors have patients who have now lived for five years on an ALK inhibitor or lived for five years with metastatic lung cancer after receiving an immune checkpoint inhibitor.

We have seen this in our own clinic. We've seen these patients do better, live longer, and we are, in our own practice, creating lung cancer survivors. And yet, though we've seen it, I don't know that everyone has gotten the news that things are changing and that progress is underway—that drug development and science is actually changing the outcomes in this terrible disease.

And what that means is that, when a patient out there gets the news that they have lung cancer, or believe they have lung cancer, there is this reticence to even present and participate in care. There is this doom. And, look, I know it's still a terribly serious disease and outcomes are unpredictable, but there is also hope.

And so what I would like is that all of us in the lung cancer community educate about the incredible advances that science has enabled, and that the new therapies are making a difference. And so, if you have lung cancer, go see an oncologist, go ask for a clinical trial, go ask for molecular testing, and be motivated, because the potential for better outcomes is real. We are seeing it, and things are changing bit by bit. So we need to be part of educating to share that news.