Dr Hatim Husain Discusses HER2, Novel Therapy Exploration in Lung Cancer

During the Quality Cancer Care Alliance Summer 2022 National Leadership Summit, Hatim Husain, MD, discusses how HER2 exploration in lung cancer differs from that in breast cancer, as well as novel therapies being explored for HER2 and other disease targets.

Transcript

Is HER2 an area of exploration in lung cancer?

This is a very important question, because the biomarkers for HER2 in lung cancer are a bit different than breast cancer. In lung cancer, the biomarker of response is HER2 mutations, and this is in comparison to HER2 overexpression, or FISH [fluorescence in situ hybridization], in breast cancer. HER2 mutations can occur in a subset of lung cancer and can be defined by insertions or point mutations, and they can span the HER2 gene.

Are there any novel therapies being researched in lung cancer that you have your eye on?

In lung cancer, there are several novel therapies that I think are important to know about. In the HER2 space, we do have an agent trastuzumab deruxtecan, which is showing a pretty meaningful clinical benefit with response in patients who have this aberration of HER2 mutations. We also have an approved agent in the KRAS G12C space, and I think that’s very important, as this was a previous unmet need. And then we do have emerging data for a new class of molecules known as antibody-drug conjugates, where we are seeing benefit across a number of different targets in lung cancer, including Trop-2 and HER3 as well, that may have impact for patients as well.

I think that part of the cornerstones of lung cancer are testing for molecular drivers. This is a key component, not only to have the test sent, but also wait for the test result when clinically appropriate to make treatment decisions. And I also think that the future is quite bright with novel agents that are being explored in the immune therapy space, as well as novel molecularly guided therapies as well, and also strategies to think through what we may do for patients when patients don’t have a particular molecular driver or predictive immune therapy biomarker as well.