Dr. Ramalingam on the Results of the Phase III REVEL Study in NSCLC

Suresh S. Ramalingam, MD, a professor of medical oncology at the Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, discusses the results of the phase III REVEL study that explored ramucirumab in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

The second line treatment of NSCLC has been a difficult problem to solve, Ramalingam says, as there have been several trials in this space but none have been successful. The REVEL study is significant because it is the first phase III prospective trial to show a survival benefit when adding a targeted drug to chemotherapy. In this trial, treatment with ramucirumab resulted in a hazard ratio for overall survival of 0.857 (95% CI 0.751, 0.98; P = 0.0235) and a doubling in response rate.

Research still must be conducted, Ramalingam says, to determine if there is a biomarker to select patients who have a greater degree of benefit in this space.