CUHK Medicine shared a post on LinkedIn:
“Turning advanced lung cancer into a chronic disease.
Lung cancer is the world’s most frequently diagnosed cancer and the top cause of cancer deaths, claiming an estimated 1.8 million lives each year. NSCLC accounts for nearly 80% of all lung cancer cases, of which about 4% are ALK-positive.
CUHK Medicine co-led a landmark seven-year international Phase 3 clinical trial in lung cancer with multiple cancer centres worldwide. The study demonstrated that more than half of previously untreated patients with advanced ALK-positive non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) experienced no disease progression after receiving the third-generation targeted therapy lorlatinib as first-line treatment at seven years. This represents the longest progression-free survival (PFS) ever reported among targeted therapies for advanced solid tumours. The findings mark a significant step toward transforming specific oncogene-driven advanced lung cancer into a chronic condition, enabling patients to live with the disease.
Brain metastases are highly prevalent among lung cancer patients, affecting more than 30% of cases with ALK gene mutations. Conventional radiotherapy offers limited efficacy in controlling brain metastases or achieving long-term survival. Lorlatinib has demonstrated exceptional blood-brain barrier penetration capabilities. No new cases of brain progression were observed after more than 30 months of treatment, and the rate of no new intracranial progression at seven years was as high as 92%, approximately six times higher than that of the control group.
The breakthrough results were presented by Professor Tony Mok, Chairman of the Department of Clinical Oncology at CU Medicine, at the 2026 ASCO Annual Meeting and simultaneously published in the leading international medical journal Annals of Oncology.”
Title: Lorlatinib versus crizotinib as first-line treatment for advanced ALK-positive non-small-cell lung cancer: 7-year update from the phase III CROWN study
Authors: A.T. Shaw, B.J. Solomon, E. Felip, T.M. Bauer, G. Liu, Y. Goto, Y.-L. Wu, R.A. Soo, J. Mazieres, D.-W. Kim, I.-M. Wang, J. Paolini, A. Polli, N. Rifi, F. Toffalorio, T.S.K. Mok
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