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.

  • Year in Review
  • Published:

Lung cancer in 2017

Giant steps and stumbling blocks

Nature Reviews Clinical Oncology volume 15, pages 71–72 (2018)Cite this article

Subjects

In 2017, major advances in the treatment of non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) continued to emanate from the fields of molecularly targeted therapy and immunotherapy. In the former, new drugs with improved efficacy and reduced toxicity entered the clinic; in the latter, immune-checkpoint inhibition proved efficacious after chemoradiotherapy for stage III disease, but had disparate results in the frontline treatment of stage IV disease.

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

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

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. Thomas, A., Liu, S. V., Subramaniam, D. S. & Giaccone, G. Refining the treatment of NSCLC according to histological and molecular subtypes. Nat. Rev. Clin. Oncol. 12, 511–526 (2015).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  2. Mok, T. S. et al. Osimertinib or platinum–pemetrexed in EGFR T790M-positive lung cancer. N. Engl. J. Med. 376, 629–640 (2017).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. Ramalingam, S. et al. Osimertinib versus standard of care (SoC) EGFR-TKI as first-line therapy in patients (pts) with EGFRm advanced NSCLC: FLAURA. Ann. Oncol. 28 (Suppl. 5), v605–v649 (2017).

    Google Scholar 

  4. Heigener, D. F. & Reck, M. Crizotinib. Recent Results Cancer Res. 201, 197–205 (2014).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. Tang, S. C. et al. Increased oral availability and brain accumulation of the ALK inhibitor crizotinib by coadministration of the P-glycoprotein (ABCB1) and breast cancer resistance protein (ABCG2) inhibitor elacridar. Int. J. Cancer 134, 1484–1494 (2014).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  6. Peters, S. et al. Alectinib versus crizotinib in untreated ALK-positive non-small-cell lung cancer. N. Engl. J. Med. 377, 829–838 (2017).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  7. Hida, T. et al. Alectinib versus crizotinib in patients with ALK-positive non-small-cell lung cancer (J-ALEX): an open-label, randomised phase 3 trial. Lancet 390, 29–39 (2017).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  8. Carbone, D. P. et al. First-line nivolumab in stage IV or recurrent non-small-cell lung cancer. N. Engl. J. Med. 376, 2415–2426 (2017).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  9. Reck, M. et al. Pembrolizumab versus chemotherapy for PD-L1–positive non-small-cell lung cancer. N. Engl. J. Med. 375, 1823–1833 (2016).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  10. Antonia, S. J. et al. Durvalumab after chemoradiotherapy in stage III non-small-cell lung cancer. N. Engl. J. Med. http://dx.doi.org/10.1056/NEJMoa1709937 (2017).

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. David F. Heigener and Martin Reck are at the Department of Thoracic Oncology, LungenClinic Grosshansdorf, Airway Research Centre North (ARCN), German Center for Lung Research (DZL), Woehrendamm 80, Grosshansdorf, Schleswig-Holstein 22927, Germany.,

    David F. Heigener & Martin Reck

Authors
  1. David F. Heigener
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Martin Reck
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to David F. Heigener.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

D.F.H. and M.R. are advisory board members for, and have received honoraria for speaking and reimbursement for travel from Astra Zeneca, BMS, Boehringer Ingelheim, Lilly, MSD, Pfizer, and Roche. Both authors have also received honoraria for speaking from Chugai and Fresenius; D.F.H. is an advisory board member for both companies, and M.R. for Chugai.

PowerPoint slides

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Heigener, D., Reck, M. Giant steps and stumbling blocks. Nat Rev Clin Oncol 15, 71–72 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrclinonc.2017.178

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrclinonc.2017.178

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing: Cancer

Sign up for the Nature Briefing: Cancer newsletter — what matters in cancer research, free to your inbox weekly.

Get what matters in cancer research, free to your inbox weekly. Sign up for Nature Briefing: Cancer