My Authors
Read all threads
THREAD: I have heard a lot of self-righteous indignation about how we would be bankrupting the system with adjuvant targeted treatment for EGFR mutation+ NSCLC pts, so let's take a quick look at how many pts we're talking about here to put this in perspective. #ASCO20 #LCSM 1/8
There will be about 230,000 people diagnosed with lung cancer in the US in 2020, of which about 88% have NSCLC and 60% of those have adenocarcinoma (~121,000). About 15% of those have EGFR mutations, so the total # of EGFR mutation+ NSCLC cases in US in 2020 is about 18,000. 2/8
Of those 18,000 people, ~1/3 will be diagnosed at stage 4, about 1/3 will have stage 3, and about 1/3 will have resectable early stage (I or II). Stage 2 is the smallest section, at about 10% of the total, and most stage 3 is unresectable so perhaps another 10% get surgery. 3/8
So ~20% of the 18,000 people with EGFR mutant NSCLC will be in the group eligible for adjuvant treatment, or about 3600 people per year. If we go conservative and expand to 30% that makes 5400. Compare this to the 60,000 pts with stage 3 NSCLC who are eligible for durvalumab 4/8
The 5400 patients eligible for adjuvant osimertinib also are substantially fewer than the number of stage 4 patients who will get pembrolizumab +/- chemo (~60,000) and even EGFR mutation+ stage 4 pts who get osimertinib anyway at SOC (~6000). 5/8
Also keep in mind that in the absence of adjuvant treatment (control arm of ADAURA), only 28% of these pts were still disease free at 3 years, meaning 72% at least of the patients would still go on to osimertinib for recurrent cancer anyway so this is only a shift in timing. 6/8
We should also start thinking about consolidation osimertinib for stage 3 EGFR mutant NSCLC after chemorads, if LAURA trial is positive (seems likely after ADAURA), which adds another ~6000 pts per year who need osi. Still pales compared to nontargeted tx (again ~60,000). 7/8
So in sum, identifying subsets of patients who have greater benefit from targeted treatments is much cheaper than treating all pts unselected by biomarkers, and with greater benefits and less chance of toxicity for those who don't benefit #ASCO20 #LCSM 8/8
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh.

Keep Current with Nathan A. Pennell MD, PhD, FASCO

Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

Twitter may remove this content at anytime, convert it as a PDF, save and print for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video

1) Follow Thread Reader App on Twitter so you can easily mention us!

2) Go to a Twitter thread (series of Tweets by the same owner) and mention us with a keyword "unroll" @threadreaderapp unroll

You can practice here first or read more on our help page!

Follow Us on Twitter!

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3.00/month or $30.00/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Too expensive? Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal Become our Patreon

Thank you for your support!