Dr. Dimou on Emerging Treatment Options in BRAF+ Lung Cancer

Anastasios (Tassos) Dimou, MD, a medical oncologist at Mayo Clinic, discusses emerging treatment options in BRAF-positive lung cancer.

Standard chemotherapy and immunotherapy have demonstrated success in patients with BRAF-mutant lung cancer, explains Dimou.

Single-agent immunotherapy appears to elicit similar responses for patients with BRAF-mutant disease as it does for those in the general lung cancer population, says Dimou. Other oncogene-driven lung cancers have not shown similar responses with immunotherapy.

BRAF and MEK inhibitors that are approved in melanoma are also being actively investigated as targeted therapy in BRAF-driven lung cancer.

Although these agents have different safety profiles compared with current regimens, such as the combination of dabrafenib (Tafinlar) and trametinib (Mekinist), they could introduce more options for patients with BRAF-positive lung cancer, concludes Dimou.