Lung Cancer Research

Research advances in lung cancer include targeted therapies for specific mutations, immunotherapy combinations, and early screening methods.

Our Lung Cancer Analysis

• August 20, 2026JAMA Oncology

  Industry Now Outpaces Federal Cancer Trial Sponsorship Nearly 5 to 1 — And the Gap Is Widening

  A registry-based analysis of 11,681 US interventional cancer trials registered on ClinicalTrials.gov between 2008 and 2024 found that industry sponsors now outnumber federal sponsors nearly 5 to 1 (4.53-to-1 overall), with the ratio widening from 2.72-to-1 in 2008–2012 to 6.44-to-1 in 2019–2024.

• August 14, 2026Clinical Cancer ResearchFLARE-RT (NCT02773238)

  PET-Guided Adaptive Radiation Boost Improves Local Control in Unresectable NSCLC

  The Phase II FLARE-RT trial used mid-treatment FDG-PET response to selectively boost radiation dose (to 74 Gy, peak >90 Gy) only in the roughly one-third of unresectable NSCLC patients whose tumors were not responding, while treating responders with standard 60 Gy chemoradiation.

• August 7, 2026The Lancet OncologyPACIFIC post-hoc analysis (NCT02125461)

  PPIs and Antibiotics Linked to Blunted Durvalumab Benefit in Stage III NSCLC

  A post-hoc analysis of the phase III PACIFIC trial (660 of 713 originally randomized patients; 449 durvalumab, 211 placebo) examined whether baseline exposure to proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) or antibiotics was associated with worse outcomes after consolidation durvalumab for unresectable stage III NSCLC, at a median follow-up of 62.4 months.

• August 3, 2026Cancer DiscoveryNCI 18-C-0110 (NCT03554473)

  TGF-β Blockade Plus PD-L1 Inhibition Triggers Hyperprogression in Relapsed Small Cell Lung Cancer

  A single-center, investigator-initiated Phase Ib/II trial (NCI protocol 18-C-0110, NCT03554473) tested bintrafusp alfa — a bifunctional PD-L1/TGF-β fusion protein — alone or with chemotherapy in 37 patients with relapsed small cell lung cancer treated between 2019 and 2022.

• July 13, 2026JAMA OncologyTREASURE (AIO-TRK-0320; NCT04462276)

  Adding Consolidative Thoracic Radiotherapy to Atezolizumab Maintenance Increases Toxicity Without Survival Benefit in Extensive-Stage SCLC: The Phase 2 TREASURE Trial

  Multicenter, open-label, randomized phase 2 trial (TREASURE, AIO-TRK-0320) at 20 sites in Germany and Austria testing whether adding consolidative thoracic radiotherapy (TRT, 30 Gy in 10 fractions) to atezolizumab maintenance improves overall survival in extensive-stage small cell lung cancer (ES-SCLC) after induction chemoimmunotherapy; 96 patients screened, 68 randomized 1:1

• March 15, 2026New England Journal of MedicineOptiTROP-Lung04 (NCT05870319)

  Sacituzumab Tirumotecan Demonstrates Superior Progression-Free and Overall Survival in EGFR-TKI–Resistant Non–Small-Cell Lung Cancer

  The Phase III OptiTROP-Lung04 trial randomized 376 patients with EGFR-mutated advanced NSCLC that progressed after EGFR-TKI therapy to sacituzumab tirumotecan (sac-TMT) monotherapy or platinum-based chemotherapy