Study Points to Benefits of Local Consolidative Therapy, Targeted Treatments in Cancer Care

Combining local consolidative therapy (LCT) with molecularly targeted treatments appears to improve the long-term survival of certain patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), a study appearing this week in JCO Precision Oncology indicates. LCT is an increasingly common therapeutic strategy for synchronous oligometastatic NSCLC patients, who are generally characterized as having one to five discrete metastatic lesions rather than widely metastatic disease. However, the outcomes of genetically stratified patients who receive LCT have not been reported. To address this knowledge gap, scientists from the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center performed a retrospective cohort study of 194 advanced NSCLC patients with three or fewer synchronous metastatic sites, grouping them by mutational statuses. They found that, compared with wild-type patients, those with EGFR mutations had longer overall survival and those with STK11 mutations had shorter progression-free survival. Notably, patients with EGFR mutations who received both EGFR-targeted therapy and comprehensive LCT had the most favorable survival outcomes. "These data support ongoing trials to elucidate the utility and timing of LCT in patients with oligometastatic NSCLC receiving systemic agents," the investigators write.