Megan Sanders, Chief Executive Officer at Thoracic Oncology Group of Australasia, shared a post on LinkedIn:
“Finishing off Thoracic Oncology Group of Australasia International conference highlights symposium tonight, with Immunotherapy and CNS Metastases in NSCLC — from Prof Tom John.
My key takeaways:
- Up to half of all patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) will develop brain metastases during their disease course — a major driver of morbidity and mortality.
- Our understanding of the CNS microenvironment is evolving- not as immune-privileged as thought, with both an active immune response in the CNS and drug penetration possible.
- CNS metastases can behave differently from extracranial disease, with distinct mutations and non-concurrent responses
- Single-agent immunotherapy shows modest intracranial activity, particularly in PD-L1 0% tumours.
- Combination chemo-immunotherapy may achieve stronger, more durable outcomes — in study by Nadal presented at WCLC 2025, around 30% of patients were alive at two years, an extraordinary result in this setting, even though the trial itself failed to meet the primary endpoint of control of intracranial events.
- Future directions include understanding the brain tumour microenvironment and optimising treatment sequencing
It’s worth checking out our entire event for thoracic cancer highlights from ESMO, ASTRO and iMiG.
If you register at below link, you will receive a personalised link to your inbox. If registrations have closed, you should be able to access the recording at the same link.
Check out our other educational events at our YouTube channel.”
More posts featuring Megan Sanders.
