The Two Onc Docs Discuss Why LAURA Is a ‘Game-Changer’ in Oncology

Samantha Armstrong, MD, of Indiana University, and Karine Tawagi, MD, of the University of Illinois in Chicago, discuss their interview with Suresh S. Ramalingam, MD, FACP, FASCO, of the Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University, during the 2024 American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting.

“We just got done interviewing Dr. Ramalingam, who presented the LAURA trial at the 2024 plenary session and got a standing ovation,” Dr. Armstrong said.

They discussed the historic importance of the plenary presentation from Dr. Ramalingam and what it meant to interview him during the annual meeting.

“It was so exciting to speak with him directly,” Dr. Tawagi said. “There were actually 2 groundbreaking lung plenary sessions yesterday that were presented, one in stage III unresectable non-small cell lung cancer [NSCLC] and then the other one was in limited-stage small cell lung cancer.”

LAURA, a double-blinded and placebo-controlled phase 3 trial, assessed the efficacy and safety of osimertinib in adults with unresectable stage III EGFR-mutated NSCLC who received definitive platinum-based concurrent or sequential chemoradiotherapy and did not have progression.

“The LAURA trial is really exciting, because in stage III nonresectable, EGFR-mutated lung cancers before this trial, after [chemoradiotherapy] it was just observation, and they did have a really high risk of relapse and distant metastatic disease,” Dr. Armstrong said. “What osimertinib provides is a much longer [progression-free survival] and hopefully [overall survival (OS)] once that data matures.”

Dr. Tawagi agreed and added an important consideration about the trial design when it comes to interpreting the OS data at maturity.

“We’re going to have to keep in mind the high crossover rate when we look at the OS data, which we’ll hopefully have in in the next few years.”

Dr. Armstrong concluded by reflecting on how it felt to see the LAURA trial results and interview Dr. Ramalingam at the annual meeting.

“It was exciting,” she said. “This is a game-changer in the field of oncology.”