ESMO 2016 | The crossroads of targeted therapy and immunotherapy in lung cancer

Roy Herbst, MD, PhD of Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT gives an overview of his talk on the crossroads of targeted therapy and immunotherapy in lung cancer presented at the 2016 annual meeting of the European Society of Medical Oncology (ESMO), held in Copenhagen, Denmark. Prof. Herbst explains that the questions is when to use targeted therapy or immunotherapy. If you have a molecular driver (e.g. ALK, EGFR, ROS1) the data points to using an oral tyrosine kinase inhibitor; the downside is the durability of response due to resistance. Immunotherapy can be used for the rest. Another question he addresses is how immunotherapy and targeted therapy can be integrated together. He explains that this is the crossroads and will require trials and an understanding of the toxicity and benefits of all of these agents.