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Sanjay Popat
Clinical Senior Lecturer in Medical Oncology, Imperial College London
We've evolved very rapidly to a position where we've got newer chemotherapy agents that work better in specific sub-types of lung cancer. We've got more advanced lines of treatment, so patients failing the first line of treatment can effectively have more treatment in the future. The most recent data looks at the cancer itself, at a molecular level, looking at the genetics of the cancer itself to work out the best treatments to offer that particular patient who has that particular type of cancer.
We're not delivering a generalised approach to our patients any more. We're personalising the treatments for the individuals we see in our clinics. We do need more treatments that target the structures within the cell. We've been given drugs that attack a number of pathways within the cell, and if it's killing different types of cells with different types of mechanisms, the side effects of these treatments can be quite large. Isn't it better to work out what's biologically gone wrong to cause that cancer in the first place, switch that process off by one specific targeted treatment? That's the utopia that all oncologists have. I think we're heading towards that in some types of lung cancer.
Source for healthcare professionals: www.inoncology.com
* Nintedanib (BIBF 1120), afatinib (BIBW 2992) and volasertib (BI 6727) are investigational compounds. Their safety and efficacy have not yet been fully established.
