A second precision medicine collaboration focused on lung cancer has been launched as part of the new National Cancer Institue–supported National Clinical Trials Network. The Adjuvant Lung Cancer Enrichment Marker Identification and Sequencing Trials, or ALCHEMIST, will screen early-stage lung cancer patients for tumor EGFR mutations or ALK rearrangements and evaluate whether adjuvant targeted treatment can prevent recurrence and improve survival, according to a statement issued by the National Institutes of Health.
The first trial, Lung-MAP, for patients with advanced squamous cell lung cancer, launched in June. ALCHEMIST is an integration of three trials for patients with stage IB, II or IIIA non-squamous non-small cell lung cancer. A screening trial will screen 6,000-8,000 potential participants over 5-6 years to identify those with EGFR and ALK alterations.
Eligible patients will then be referred to one of two randomized, placebo-controlled ALCHEMIST treatment trials, one to evaluate erlotinib, and the other crizotinib, in the post-operative setting.
The researchers expect a total enrollment of approximately 800 patients in each of the treatment trials.
All of the NCI-supported National Clinical Trials Network groups collaborated in the development of ALCHEMIST and are participating in the component trials, the NIH statement says.
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