Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center says a growing range of targeted drugs and immunotherapies is changing treatment for lung cancer patients.
The New York cancer centre outlined recent advances Tuesday, pointing to new options for both early-stage and metastatic disease. Lung cancer remains the leading cause of cancer death in the United States and ranks as the country’s second-most common cancer. However, MSK said newer treatments are helping reduce deaths while giving doctors more ways to tailor therapy to individual tumours.
Non-small cell lung cancer, or NSCLC, accounts for most lung cancer cases and doctors can often treat it surgically when detected early. MSK now performs more than 90 per cent of its stage 1 lung cancer surgeries using minimally invasive techniques.
These include video-assisted thoracic surgery and robotic-assisted procedures, which require smaller incisions than traditional open surgery. Consequently, patients generally experience less pain, encounter fewer complications and can recover more quickly following surgery.
Surgeons try to preserve as much healthy lung tissue as possible while removing the cancer and limiting the effects of treatment. In addition, faster recovery can allow patients who need chemotherapy or radiation therapy to begin those treatments sooner. The treatment picture becomes more complicated when NSCLC reaches stage 4 and spreads beyond the lungs to other parts of the body. However, advances in genetic testing have created new treatment options for many patients with metastatic disease.
MSK routinely performs comprehensive genetic testing on tumors from every patient diagnosed with NSCLC at the cancer centre. The testing searches for molecular changes that may drive a patient’s cancer and expose weaknesses doctors can target with specific drugs.
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Researchers studied the gene for four decades
Those results can help physicians choose approved therapies or identify clinical trials testing experimental treatments. MSK said its in-house genomic testing can screen tumors for hundreds of possible gene mutations that may influence treatment decisions.
One of the biggest changes involves KRAS, a cancer-related gene that researchers once considered extremely difficult to target with drugs. KRAS mutations are responsible for roughly one-quarter of lung cancers, according to MSK. Researchers studied the gene for nearly four decades without producing an effective targeted treatment. However, MSK researchers Piro Lito and Neal Rosen published research in 2016 showing a possible way to attack KRAS in cancer cells.
That work helped open the door to drugs aimed at particular KRAS mutations found in patients with several different types of cancer. The US Food and Drug Administration approved sotorasib in 2021 for adults with NSCLC carrying the KRAS G12C mutation. Subsequently, regulators approved adagrasib for cancers carrying the same mutation. Those drugs gave doctors treatment options for a genetic target that had resisted decades of drug development.
Meanwhile, researchers are studying daraxonrasib as a broader approach to cancers driven by several forms of RAS mutations. The experimental treatment produced tumor shrinkage and improved health in 30 per cent of lung cancer patients in a phase 1/2 trial. Thoracic oncologist Kathryn Arbour led the study, which tested daraxonrasib in patients with advanced NSCLC carrying RAS mutations. The New England Journal of Medicine published the results in September 2026.
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Low-dose CT remains established screening method
Daraxonrasib works differently from drugs designed around a single KRAS mutation and instead targets several active forms of RAS proteins. That broader approach could potentially make the drug useful for patients whose tumors carry mutations beyond KRAS G12C. However, the lung cancer findings remain early, and researchers must continue evaluating the treatment through clinical development.
The FDA approved daraxonrasib in August 2026 for metastatic pancreatic cancer caused by RAS mutations, according to MSK. Additionally, its activity in lung cancer suggests researchers may eventually extend the same approach across different RAS-driven cancers. MSK described the lung cancer results as promising rather than definitive. Researchers will determine which patients benefit most from the treatment and how long those benefits last through additional clinical studies.
Meanwhile, advances in lung cancer treatment are increasing the value of detecting tumors before they spread. Low-dose computed tomography remains an established screening method for people at high risk. However, companies are developing less invasive technologies that search for molecular signs of cancer in blood or breath.
Vancouver-based BioMark Diagnostics Inc. (CNSX: BUX) (OTCMKTS: BMKDF) is developing liquid biopsy technologies for detecting lung cancer. Its approach searches for metabolic biomarkers in blood and urine that could indicate cancer at an earlier stage. The company has also expanded patent protection covering parts of its lung cancer detection technology.
Privately held Owlstone Medical is pursuing a different approach through its Breath Biopsy platform. The technology analyzes volatile organic compounds in exhaled breath for molecular patterns associated with disease. Additionally, its EVOLUTION clinical program is evaluating the technology for detecting lung cancer among people at elevated risk.
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Multiple approaches target earlier lung cancer detection
GRAIL Inc. (NASDAQ: GRAL), meanwhile, has developed the Galleri multi-cancer early detection test. Galleri searches blood for DNA fragments associated with cancer and predicts the likely tissue where a detected cancer signal originated. Unlike lung-specific diagnostic technologies, GRAIL designed the test to search for signals associated with numerous cancer types.
Breath Diagnostics is also developing a non-invasive approach specifically aimed at lung cancer detection. Its OneBreath platform analyzes volatile organic compounds in a single exhaled breath using mass spectrometry. The company reports 94 per cent sensitivity and 85 per cent specificity from studies involving more than 800 patients. However, OneBreath remains under development and has not received regulatory approval as a lung cancer screening test.
