West on Lung Cancer

• 'How Could We Fail so Miserably?' A new study using real-world data suggests that far too many patients with driver mutations are dying without receiving effective treatments.
  Medscape Oncology, May 16, 2019
• Should We Be Doing Molecular Testing at the Time of Acquired Resistance? A study of ALK-positive lung cancer raises questions about the role of repeat biopsies, as well as the relative value of tissue versus plasma molecular testing.
  Medscape Oncology, April 10, 2019
• Linking Community and Academic Oncologists: Creating a New Model Can oncologists continue to deliver cancer care without subspecialization? Jack West envisions a team-based model that capitalizes on oncologists' unique strengths.
  Medscape Oncology, March 08, 2019
• Is It Timing or Access? How Clinical Trials Game the System In many cancer trials, a critical question is never answered: How important is it to give a new drug first?
  Medscape Oncology, February 21, 2019
• You Don't Need 800 Cable Channels (Or Tumor Genetic Mutations) Jack West discusses the limits of personalized medicine using next-generation sequencing, and in particular the difficulty of scaling up a truly 'personalized' approach.
  Medscape Oncology, December 21, 2018
• At ESMO, New Data on Managing Long-term Immunotherapy Responders Despite closely following the 2018 World Conference on Lung Cancer, this year's annual congress of the European Society for Medical Oncology offered important immunotherapy data in lung cancer.
  Medscape Oncology, November 13, 2018
• How the 2018 WCLC Data Change Lung Cancer Practice The 19th World Conference on Lung Cancer (WCLC), held September 23-26 in Toronto, featured a remarkable presidential session that included multiple practice-changing results.
  Medscape Oncology, October 04, 2018
• Jack West: Why CMS' Step Therapy Decision Is so Dangerous The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' decision to allow step therapy in Medicare Advantage Part B drug prescribing is particularly dangerous for cancer patients, argues Jack West, MD.
  Medscape Oncology, September 06, 2018
• Is Upfront Combo Therapy Better Than the Sum of Its Parts? Lung cancer studies presented at ASCO 2018 demonstrate the enduring value of chemotherapy, even in the age of targeted and immunotherapies, argues Jack West, MD.
  Medscape Oncology, August 09, 2018
• Does Immunotherapy Have a Role in EGFR-Mutant Lung Cancer?   Three thoracic oncology experts discuss the evolving role of immunotherapy and combination therapies in driver-mutation-positive lung cancer patients.
  Medscape Oncology, July 19, 2018
• In NSCLC, Immunotherapy Evolving to Become First-Line Treatment Thoracic oncologist Dr Jack West interprets the most important advanced lung cancer trials from ASCO 2018, including the 'sleeper' KEYNOTE-407 trial.
  Medscape Oncology, June 25, 2018
• The Best Ways to Dispel Patients' 'Cancer Myths' in Clinical Practice   With patients bringing more and more of their own information into cancer treatment discussions, a panel of oncologists discusses how to respectfully dispel health misinformation.
  Medscape Oncology, June 22, 2018
• ASCO Data Establish Chemo-IO as Mainstay Frontline for NSCLC   Dr Jack West moderates a panel discussion with Drs Josh Bauml and Sandip Patel on the most important lung cancer trials at ASCO 2018, with a focus on chemo-immunotherapy combinations.
  Medscape Oncology, June 21, 2018
• Tumor Mutation Burden as Biomarker: All-Systems-Go or Too Early?   Drs West, Patel, and Bauml debate the use of TMB analysis in choosing a treatment regimen for NSCLC.
  Medscape Oncology, June 21, 2018
• When Online Information Is the 'Third Party in the Exam Room'   There is too much information for doctors to 'know it all’ anymore. Drs West, Pal, and Gilligan discuss the changing doctor-patient relationship, including when patients become the educators.
  Medscape Oncology, June 14, 2018
• Which Patients With CNS Metastases Can Avoid Radiation?   Thoracic oncologists Drs Jack West and Hossein Borghaei talk about the CNS activity of new lung cancer agents and whether it means some patients can forgo radiotherapy.
  Medscape Oncology, May 31, 2018
• Dealing With Data Overload in Oncology   From pharmaceutical press releases to highly motivated online patient groups, oncologists are on the receiving end of a firehose of information. Here are some solutions.
  Medscape Oncology, May 30, 2018
• Time to 'Rethink' Immunotherapy for Molecularly Driven NSCLC   Drs West and Borghaei discuss IMpower150 and why clinicians should reconsider using immunotherapy as a last line of defense in molecularly driven NSCLC.
  Medscape Oncology, May 24, 2018
• Trial 'Desperately Needed' to Sequence Immunotherapy and Chemo in Lung Cancer   Thoracic oncologists Drs Jack West and Hossein Borghaei discuss critical questions in the treatment of low-expressing or PD-L1-negative non-small cell lung cancer patients.
  Medscape Oncology, May 18, 2018
• KEYNOTE-189: Chemo + Immunotherapy Now Viable for PD-L1 Low NSCLC   While KEYNOTE-189 answered many questions about immuno-oncology for NSCLC, Drs West and Borghaei look forward to results of KEYNOTE-042 for even more answers.
  Medscape Oncology, May 17, 2018