🫁 Lung/Head and Neck — 2026-W40

What this page is. Every paper the week's monitor reviewed — including the ones that did not go into the digest. Material marked “Not selected” was reviewed and deliberately left out. It has not been fact-checked to digest standard and is not endorsed. For the curated read, see the digest itself.

Multi-institutional retrospective cohort in J Thorac Oncol developing a clinical score to predict long-term benefit from first-line osimertinib monotherapy in EGFR-mutated advanced NSCLC. Could help clinicians identify which patients may do well on monotherapy versus needing intensified first-line regimens.

Multi-institutional international pathology study (J Thorac Oncol) proposing a new diagnostic category for high-grade lung carcinoids/NETs based on clinicopathologic and molecular features. Informs future WHO classification refinement but does not directly report a therapy-selection biomarker.

Single-arm phase 2 trial of ivonescimab plus chemotherapy in first-line treatment-naive advanced thymic carcinoma, published in Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer. Preliminary results show a high response rate in a very small cohort, suggesting a promising but early signal for this novel PD-1/VEGF bispecific combination.

Retrospective cohort study of EGFR-mutant NSCLC patients on first-line osimertinib, published in Lung Cancer, identifying baseline PD-L1 expression and disease presentation as predictors of early progression versus durable response. Findings could help clinicians identify patients who may need upfront treatment intensification.

Prospective observational cohort study in advanced NSCLC patients treated with immune checkpoint inhibitors, published in J Immunother Cancer. Plasma metabolomic signatures were associated with clinical response and survival, suggesting a potential predictive biomarker approach for immunotherapy outcomes.

Phase I/Ib dose-expansion trial in metastatic NSCLC and extensive-stage SCLC evaluating ociperlimab plus tislelizumab with or without chemotherapy, published in J Immunother Cancer. Reports objective response and duration-of-response data across multiple untreated and pretreated cohorts, informing further development of this TIGIT/PD-1 combination.

Retrospective single-center study in Lung Cancer evaluating whether adding EBUS-TBNA during robotic bronchoscopic biopsy improves mediastinal nodal staging accuracy over CT/PET alone. Shows meaningful stage migration in a subset of patients, which could refine staging workflows that inform treatment planning.

Single-arm phase 2 trial in treatment-naïve extensive-stage small cell lung cancer testing camrelizumab-apatinib maintenance after chemo-immunotherapy induction, published in Lung Cancer. Shows encouraging PFS/OS signals and identifies exploratory immune biomarkers of benefit, but as a single-arm study it is hypothesis-generating rather than practice-changing.

Retrospective regional cohort study in Lung Cancer evaluating outcomes and decision-making at two years for long-term immunotherapy responders with advanced NSCLC. Suggests discontinuation may not compromise survival compared to continued treatment, informing discussions about optimal ICI duration.

Commentary/critical appraisal in JNCI examining how trial design (NETTER-2 in NETs, CheckMate-743/KEYNOTE-483 in mesothelioma, MAGNITUDE in prostate cancer) shapes regulatory and clinical interpretation of benefit-risk. Offers no new efficacy data but informs how oncologists should critically interpret these pivotal trials.

Retrospective transcriptomic analysis of paired early-stage and metastatic EGFR-mutant lung adenocarcinoma samples, published in Lung Cancer. Identifies progression-associated gene programs with prognostic relevance, but findings are exploratory and not tied to a specific therapeutic decision.