This week, our industry news insights looks at an announcement of a new phase III trial for non-small cell lung cancer, artificial intelligence (AI) for breast cancer detection, and dramatic increases in cancer rates for under-50s.
Taiho Oncology and Cullian Oncology have announced the phase III trial of zipalertinib in EGFR exon 20 insertion mutation non-small cell lung cancer. EGFR exon 20 insertion mutations are the third most common subtype of non-small cell lung cancers. In the initial phase 1/2 study, zipalertinib (an irreversible oral EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitor) demonstrated encouraging anti-tumour activity and a favourable side effect profile in heavily pretreated patients. This phase III, global, randomised trial aims to recruit 312 global patients to analyse progression free survival in zipalertinib plus chemotherapy arm versus a chemotherapy only arm. This has the potential to be an important advancement in the care of NSCLC patients that have previously had poorer outcomes.
Last week our industry insights looked at FDA approval for AI to detect lung cancers on X-rays. A study published in Radiology has compared the performance of an AI algorithm against 552 human readers in the detection of breast cancer across 120 challenging mammograms. No difference was observed between AI and human readers for the detection of breast cancer. This study highlights that AI can potentially perform breast cancer screening at a level to human readers, however further research will be required before AI can be integrated into a screening program.
Researchers used data from the Global Burden of Disease study to identify the incidence, deaths, disability-adjusted life years, and risk factors for 29 early-onset cancer groups. The most dramatic finding is a 79.1% increase in the global incidence of early-onset cancer. Breast cancer accounted for the highest number of ‘early onset’ cases, followed by those of trachea/lung/bronchus, colorectal and stomach cancers. Leading risk factors identified were tobacco use, alcohol consumption, increased BMI, high fasting plasma glucose and low physical activity. It is suggested that promotion of healthy lifestyles could help reduce the burden of early-onset cancer. Further research will be needed to look at whether early screening for these cancers needs to be implemented for younger age groups.
