Lung-cancer salvage surgery might help after TKI treatment

Reuters Health - 29/01/2021 - Salvage surgery might be beneficial in patients with recurrent or residual non-small-cell lung cancer following tyrosine-kinase inhibitor (TKI) treatment, according to a small retrospective study from Japan. Molecular targeted therapies such as epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR)-TKI or anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK)-TKI have dramatically changed clinical outcomes in such patients with driver-gene alterations, Dr Kimihiro Shimizu of Shinshu University School of Medicine, in Matsumoto, and colleagues note in Lung Cancer. However, they add, "TKI treatments rarely lead to tumor remission; even if tumors undergo complete response, they virtually always acquire resistance to TKI after a while and become a systemic disease." But if tumor spread is limited to the thorax, salvage surgery might present a therapeutic option, the team says. To investigate, the researchers examined data covering 2010 to 2015 on perioperative and postop...

Please login to read the full text of the article.

If you have no account yet, please register now.

Posted on 29 January, 20212 February, 2021