🫁 Lung/Head and Neck — 2026-W43

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.

Phase 1b study with preclinical work in first-line metastatic EGFR PACC-mutant NSCLC, published in Cancer Cell. Shows encouraging responses including intracranial activity with firmonertinib, supporting further study of this option in a population with limited therapies.

Pan-Asian adapted ESMO consensus guideline for early and locally advanced NSCLC, published in ESMO Open. Provides regionally adapted expert recommendations for diagnosis, treatment and follow-up in Asian patients, informing multimodality and systemic therapy decisions.

Single-arm phase 2 basket trial (TAPUR) in advanced BRAF V600E-mutant thyroid and biliary tract cancers, published in JCO Precision Oncology. Cobimetinib plus vemurafenib showed encouraging disease control and responses, supporting BRAF/MEK targeting in these refractory, biomarker-selected patients.

First-in-human phase 1 dose-escalation of anti-TNFR2 antibody BI-1808 in advanced solid tumors, published in Clin Cancer Res. Showed safety, pharmacodynamic immune activation and a few tumor regressions, supporting further clinical development.

Multicenter retrospective/prospective validation of Immunoscore in HPV-associated oropharyngeal cancer, published in Clinical Cancer Research. It is a prognostic marker for disease-free survival, but does not yet guide a specific therapy choice.

Real-world registry analysis in RET fusion-positive metastatic NSCLC after progression on selective RET inhibitors, published in Clin Cancer Res. Provides benchmark outcomes for platinum-pemetrexed with or without immunotherapy and later lines, informing trial design given no established standard.

Multicenter single-arm phase 2 trial in EGFR-mutant advanced NSCLC progressing on lazertinib, published in European Journal of Cancer. Continuing lazertinib with platinum-pemetrexed shows modest benefit including in brain metastases, suggesting an option after progression pending randomized data.

Retrospective multicenter cohort study of adjuvant ensartinib in resected stage I ALK-positive NSCLC, published in Lung Cancer. Suggests possible disease-free survival benefit in high-risk pathology, but the retrospective design and small treated group mean it is hypothesis-generating.

Large retrospective clinicogenomic cohort analysis of cancer cachexia episodes, published in Nature Medicine. Links cachectic weight loss to progression, outcomes and tumor genotypes and offers a validated risk prediction model in lung, colorectal and prostate cancer, but does not directly guide systemic therapy choices.

Multicenter retrospective biomarker study in small cell lung cancer patients receiving first-line chemoimmunotherapy, published in J Immunother Cancer. AI-derived CT body composition stratifies survival with validation cohorts, but it is prognostic only and does not guide treatment choice.

Narrative review in Cancers on dual-tracer PET and radiomics for imaging pulmonary neuroendocrine tumors. It informs staging and selection for somatostatin analogue therapy and PRRT, but offers incremental rather than practice-changing guidance.

Commentary in Cancer Cell on preclinical profiling and early efficacy of firmonertinib, a CNS-penetrant EGFR TKI, in EGFR PACC-mutant NSCLC. Supports further clinical development in this mutation class but does not yet change practice.