CHICAGO – The standard of care for patients with non–small cell lung cancer positive for the anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) is the ALK inhibitor crizotinib (Xalkori). However, many patients on crizotinib will have disease progression within the first year of therapy, and many will go on to have central nervous system (CNS) metastases.
The multicenter international ALEX trial compared crizotinib with the second-generation ALK inhibitor alectinib (Alecensa). The investigators found that alectinib reduced the risk of progression by 53% and the time to CNS progression by 84%.
In this video interview at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, Alice T. Shaw, MD, PhD, of Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center in Boston, outlines the ALEX trial results, which are being hailed as “practice changing.”