White paper and poster

Introduction

A group of directors from lung cancer patient advocacy organizations and key opinion leaders in the lung cancer field held a roundtable on March 13–14, 2018, in New York City to discuss trends in biomarker testing for patients with lung cancer.

Objective

The objective of this roundtable was to align on strategies to optimize patients’ and physicians’ awareness of biomarker testing to increase uptake in order to ensure all lung cancer patients receive the most effective treatment. Discussions from the roundtable led to the development of this whitepaper, which will be posted on the websites of the participating lung cancer advocacy groups and cancer organizations (Table 1). Its goals are to highlight advances in lung cancer treatment due to the advent of targeted therapies, describe under-utilization of biomarker testing in patients with advanced lung cancer, and develop an action plan to optimize the education of patients and physicians regarding biomarker testing.

Conclusion and Next Steps

Currently, biomarker testing is often viewed as an optional service by patients with lung cancer as well as their healthcare team. Additional education and awareness are needed to change this view and establish biomarker testing as part of standard of care in patients with advanced-stage lung cancer. The ultimate goal is that every patient with advanced-stage lung cancer has a full biomarker panel performed at the time of diagnosis, so it is available at their first appointment with an oncologist (or at least tests are in progress). This whitepaper summarizes opportunities to achieve this goal that were identified by a roundtable of directors from various lung cancer advocacy organizations and key opinion leaders. Next steps include reconvening the roundtable (via teleconference) to discuss strategies for moving forward with the opportunities identified in the whitepaper. Collaboration with an upcoming American Cancer Society National Lung Cancer Roundtable meeting that will focus on physicians’ knowledge gaps and development of a consensus statement on biomarkers for physicians is also encouraged to ensure uniformity across organizations and in messaging for patients and physicians.