Dr. Herbst Discusses the State of Immunotherapy in Lung Cancer

Roy S. Herbst, MD, PhD, professor, Yale Cancer Center, chief of medical oncology, Smilow Cancer Hospital at Yale-New Haven, discusses the state of immunotherapy in lung cancer.

Herbst says immunotherapy is a hope and a partial reality. At this time, about 20-25% of patients treated with immunotherapeutic agents will respond and have a durable response, Herbst says. This provides a real benefit because these patients tend to be the patients that do not usually benefit from EGFR and ALK inhibitors.

Researchers are trying to figure out why the other 75% of lung cancer patients are not responding to immunotherapies, Herbst says. By biopsying tumors, researchers can hopefully understand why immunotherapies do not work in certain patients.

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