Overview
The standard of care for patients with early-stage non-small cell lung cancer (eNSCLC) is surgery combined with systemic therapy, however, new immunotherapies and targeted therapies offer more options for patients with early-stage disease.
Using data from the Flatiron Health Panoramic database comprised of >320K patients with NSCLC, this study analyzed data from over 14,600 patients diagnosed with esNSCLC (stages IB–IIIA) who underwent surgery between 2019 and 2023. Researchers examined how often patients received different types of systemic therapy—including chemotherapy, immunotherapies, and targeted therapies—before or after surgery, and how these patterns changed over time.
Why this matters
The findings show that while the use of traditional platinum-based chemotherapy remained steady, the adoption of immunotherapies and targeted therapies increased significantly from 2019 to 2023. By 2023, about half of patients with stage II/IIIA disease received immunotherapies as part of their curative treatment and the use of targeted therapies after surgery grew. This research underscores the value of real-world data in understanding real-world treatment patterns for new cancer treatments and can identify opportunities for improving lung cancer care in everyday practice.