New Therapies Bring ‘Wins’ to Small Cell Lung Cancer Treatment

Triparna Sen, PhD, discussed advances in small cell lung cancer (SCLC), including T-cell engagers, bispecific T-cell engagers and antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs).

At the Live Lung Survivorship Summit, Sen, professor and associate director of research in the Division of Medical Oncology at The Ohio State University, explained how recent research has expanded scientists’ understanding of SCLC biology and led to promising therapeutic strategies.

For years, chemotherapy served as one of the few therapies available for SCLC. Immunotherapy later entered the treatment landscape, although patients saw modest responses. More recently, researchers have studied T-cell engagers, which help immune cells recognize and attack cancer cells. These include drugs that target DLL3, a protein commonly found on SCLC cells.

Researchers have also studied ADCs, which use an antibody to deliver a cancer-killing drug directly to cells that carry a specific target, including B7-H3 and TROP2.

“We needed some wins, and we are finally seeing some wins in small cell lung cancer with survival benefits like we have not seen in a very long time,” Sen said.

Another area of research combines lurbinectedin with immunotherapy as maintenance therapy, which aims to help control cancer after initial treatment.

“We didn’t have options. Now we have options,” Sen said. “They are actually improving survival, which is something we couldn’t say a few years ago.”

Researchers now hope to strengthen frontline therapy, or the first treatment a patient receives, so more patients respond early and avoid relapse. They also want to understand treatment resistance, which occurs when cancer stops responding to a therapy, and determine whether combination strategies could help more patients respond.

Predictive biomarkers represent another research priority. These biological characteristics may help identify which patients are more likely to respond to a particular therapy.

“Right patient, right trial, right drug,” Sen said.

Frontline therapies, combination strategies, treatment resistance and predictive biomarkers will remain key areas of SCLC research in the coming years.

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