Journal Of Clinical Oncology (jco) Podcast

This JCO Podcast provides observations and commentary on the JCO article “Erlotinib Versus Gemcitabine Plus Cisplatin as Neoadjuvant Treatment for Stage IIIA-N2 EGFR-Mutant NSCLC (EMERGING-CTONG 1103): A Randomized Phase II Study” by Zhong et al. My name is Tony Mok, and I am a Professor of Clinical Oncology at the Chinese University of Hong Kong in the Prince of Wales Hospital in Hong Kong. My oncologic specialty is Medical Oncology.   With the advent of molecular targeted therapy, patients harboring driver oncogenes may now survive longer and better than before, and EGFR mutation is the prime example of such achievement. However, evidence for “cure” of patients with metastatic EGFR mutation positive lung cancer remains scanty. In contrast, It may be more reasonable to first attempt cure of patients with earlier stage disease using molecular targeted therapy. CTONG 1103, published in this issue of Journal of Clinical Oncology, is the first randomized study comparing neoadjuvant erlotinib with chemotherapy fo