Quick Summary

The most recent version of the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Clinical Practice Guidelines for the diagnosis, treatment and follow-up of early and locally-advanced non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) was published in 2017, and covered the diagnosis, staging, management and treatment of both early stage I and II disease and locally-advanced stage III disease. At the ESMO Asia Meeting in November 2018, it was decided by both the ESMO and the Korean Society of Medical Oncology (KSMO) to convene a special face-to-face guidelines meeting in 2019 in Seoul.

 

The aim was to adapt the ESMO 2017 guidelines to take into account potential differences related to ethnicity, cancer biology and standard practices associated with the treatment of locally-advanced, unresectable NSCLC in Asian patients. These guidelines represent the consensus opinions reached by those experts in the treatment of patients with lung cancer who represented the oncology societies of Korea (KSMO), China (CSCO), India (ISMPO), Japan (JSMO), Malaysia (MOS), Singapore (SSO) and Taiwan (TOS). The voting was based on scientific evidence, and it was independent of both local current treatment practices and the treatment availability and reimbursement situations in the individual participating Asian countries.

Quick Summary

Most published guidelines for genomic biomarker testing in NSCLC reflect the disease epidemiology and treatments readily available in Europe and North America. Nevertheless, 60% of annual global NSCLC cases occur in Asia, where patient characteristics, tumor molecular profiles, and treatments vary greatly from the Western world. For example, mutations in the EGFR occur at a higher prevalence in Asia than in other world regions. Although medical associations such as the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer, European Society for Medical Oncology, and American Society of Clinical Oncology have described principles for tumor genomic biomarker testing in NSCLC, there is a need for recommendations specific for Asia.

 

This report provides consensus recommendations for NSCLC biomarker testing from Asian lung cancer experts for clinicians working in Asia to improve patient care. Biomarker testing approaches for actionable genetic alterations in EGFR, ALK, ROS1, and others are discussed for nonmetastatic and metastatic forms of adenocarcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma.

Quick Summary

A panel of 17 experts from the Asia-Pacific region reached a consensus on the clinical usefulness of protein-induced vitamin K absence II (PIVKA-II) for the surveillance and treatment monitoring of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). The experts agreed that PIVKA-II could be valuable in the detection of HCC in AFP-negative patients and for monitoring curative and intra-arterial locoregional treatments, outcomes, and recurrence. However, more evidence is required for the combined use of PIVKA-II with ultrasound and AFP for HCC surveillance, including small HCC. Implementing PIVKA-II in the region will also have challenges, such as standardizing cut-off values, cost-effectiveness, and improving awareness among healthcare providers.