Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • News & Views
  • Published:

Lung cancer

Dropping bars or rising hoops—phase III outcomes of NSCLC

Nature Reviews Clinical Oncology volume 11, pages 381–382 (2014)Cite this article

Subjects

Over the past three decades, the interpretation of clinical trial outcomes in studies of advanced-stage non-small-cell lung cancer has changed. The robustness of findings from these trials has been called into question. We believe this change is a reflection of the improved understanding of molecular-based therapeutics and continued advances in this field.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

References

  1. National Cancer Institute. SEER Stat Fact Sheets: Lung and Bronchus Cancer. Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results Program [online], (2014).

  2. Siegel, R., Naishadham, D. & Jemal, A. Cancer statistics, 2013. CA Cancer J. Clin. 63, 11–30 (2013).

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. Sacher, A. G., Le, L. W. & Leighl, N. B. Shifting patterns in the interpretation of phase III clinical trial outcomes in advanced non-small-cell lung cancer: the bar is dropping. J. Clin. Oncol. http://dx.doi.org/10.1200/JCO.2013.52.7804 (2014).

  4. Lynch, T. J. et al. Activating mutations in the epidermal growth factor receptor underlying responsiveness of non-small-cell lung cancer to gefitinib. N. Engl. J. Med. 350, 2129–2139 (2004).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. Soda, M. et al. Identification of the transforming EML4-ALK fusion gene in non-small-cell lung cancer. Nature 448, 561–566 (2007).

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Mok, T. S. et al. Gefitinib or carboplatin-paclitaxel in pulmonary adenocarcinoma. N. Engl. J. Med. 361, 947–957 (2009).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  7. Kwak, E. L. et al. Anaplastic lymphoma kinase inhibition in non-small-cell lung cancer. N. Engl. J. Med. 363, 1693–1703 (2010).

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Shaw, A. T. et al. Crizotinib versus chemotherapy in advanced ALK-positive lung cancer. N. Engl. J. Med. 368, 2385–2394 (2013).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Clinical Oncology, Faculty of Medicine, State Key Laboratory in Oncology in South China, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Prince of Wales Hospital, 30–32 Ngan Shing Street, Shatin NT, Hong Kong SAR, China

    Herbert H. Loong & Tony S. K. Mok

Authors
  1. Herbert H. Loong
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Tony S. K. Mok
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Tony S. K. Mok.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Loong, H., Mok, T. Dropping bars or rising hoops—phase III outcomes of NSCLC. Nat Rev Clin Oncol 11, 381–382 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrclinonc.2014.91

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrclinonc.2014.91

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing