VIDEO: Advancements in immunotherapeutic approaches for small cell lung cancer

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We are in an exciting time academically for small cell lung cancer. Of course, nobody wants to be in a position where they need any of these treatments, but the fact that there are people means that these new options that are available become really important to the treatment of everybody with small cell. So, immunotherapies are a bit different than what we’re used to, and I’ll specify that in saying a lot of our historic trials have been around cytotoxics.

And cytotoxics are a bit of a step forward for many people, but it’s not that home run. So, lurbinectedin I've mentioned as a second-line option. This is a step forward. We’re not seeing people with 3 years of disease control, but we are seeing many patients with months of improvements. So that’s an important step. The immunotherapy is, unfortunately, often helpful for only a subset of patients, but it can be years of disease control. So, it is a leap forward for a subset of patients, as opposed to the cytotoxics, where we have a step forward for many patients.

And that being said, there is more going on right now in the development of different treatment options for small cell lung cancer than I believe the culmination of everything that’s been done up to this point. So, there's a lot. For immunotherapy, we’re seeing multiple different options. I think tarlatamab (AMG 757, Amgen) is probably the furthest along and that’s in a class of bispecific T-cell engagers.

So, there’s also trispecific T-cell engager, binding DLL3 and binding CD3, that’s bringing the immune system and the cancer cells together to create this immune response. And this has been very exciting to see really some very durable responses with that. There are some other drugs that are really at the earlier edge of phase 1s, and earlier in development around immunotherapies for small cell lung cancer. But we’re seeing a whole new class come forward.

And so it’s exciting to see these huge leaps forward, even if it’s just for a subset. And this is where it leads to very important to continue the research to find other ways of helping all patients get to that point of that leap forward.