Episode 55: Extensive-Stage Small Cell Lung Cancer

There are cancers that grow slowly. There are cancers that do not grow at all. And then there are cancer's like today's subject, that are notorious not just for their ability to completely overcome a patient in a very small amount of time. Extensive-stage small cell lung cancer remains a very difficult condition to treat, highly prone to relapse and with few effective options beyond - or perhaps even including - the first line setting. While the medical and scientific community remain stalwart in their quest for therapeutic options, success stories have been few and far between. In this episode, Josh and Michael look at one success story, and one study dredged up from the pre-Internet era, to illustrate the dichotomy and discuss the challenge of treating this, the most aggressive of solid tumours.

Links to studies discussed in this episode (subscription may be required):

IMpower133: https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/nejmoa1809064

von Pawel et al.: https://ascopubs.org/doi/10.1200/JCO.1999.17.2.658?url_ver=Z39.88-2003&rfr_id=ori:rid:crossref.org&rfr_dat=cr_pub%20%200pubmed