Novel Approaches of Chemoradiotherapy in Unresectable Stage IIIA and Stage IIIB Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer

Abstract

After completing this course, the reader will be able to:1. Describe the current status of phase II trials with novel agents in order to distinguish the role of phase III trials in determining the role of novel agents.2. Describe target therapy in stage III non-small cell lung cancer and discuss the status of personalized medicine in stage III disease.3. State the current standard for thoracic radiation therapy and the current status of hypofractionated, adaptive radiotherapy and proton therapy and evaluate the recent radiation therapy oncology group (RTOG) 0617 trial.This article is available for continuing medical education credit at CME.TheOncologist.com. CME CME ABSTRACT

Preliminary analysis of the risk factors for radiation pneumonitis in patients with non- small-cell lung cancer treated with concurrent erlotinib and thoracic radiotherapy

“…Therefore, the most important preventive approach is to reduce the radiation dose to the lung tissues. During concurrent chemoradiotherapy, radiation pneumonitis is effectively prevented by strengthening the limits of the dosimetric parameters for pulmonary radiotherapy 14–16. Similarly, by alleviating pulmonary damage due to thoracic radiotherapy, and thereby reducing the synergistic reaction between thoracic radiotherapy and erlotinib on lung tissue during concurrent therapy, it is theoretically possible to reduce the risk of radiation pneumonitis.…”

Crotoxin suppresses the tumorigenic properties and enhances the antitumor activity of Iressa® (gefinitib) in human lung adenocarcinoma SPCA-1 cells

“…A previous study demonstrated that CrTX enhanced the antitumor activity of Iressa in SK-MES-1 human lung squamous carcinoma cells (12). Iressa is a tyrosine kinase A B C inhibitor (TKI), which competes with adenosine triphosphate in binding to the intracellular domain of EGFR (19). It is widely used in the treatment of NSCLC.…”

Chemoradiotherapy of locally advanced nonsmall cell lung cancer

“…Bevacizumab has been evaluated in combination of platinumbased therapy compared with platinum-based therapy alone. However, the development of tracheoesophageal fistulae in two phase II trials led to early closure of the trials [31]. Also, a randomized phase III study of thoracic radiation in combination with paclitaxel and carboplatin with or without thalidomide in patients with stage III NSCLC did not show a clinical benefit for thalidomide [32].…”