Use of Novel National Data Sets to Monitor Chemotherapy Use and Outcomes: A Retrospective Cohort Study of Non-Small-Cell Lung Cancer in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Purpose: Te Aho o Te Kahu, the New Zealand Cancer Control Agency, is establishing a systemic anticancer therapy (SACT) database (Anti-Cancer Therapy-Nationally Organized Workstream [ACT-NOW]) which can be linked to other national health data collections. In this article, we explore the application of ACT-NOW data in the monitoring of uptake and outcomes after the public funding of pemetrexed in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Methods: We used the ACT-NOW collection to identify patients with advanced nonsquamous non-small-cell lung cancer, who were treated with first-line platinum-based doublet chemotherapy over an 8-year period.

Targeted therapy for advanced anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK)-rearranged non-small cell lung cancer.

Background: Targeted therapies directed at specific driver oncogenes have improved outcomes for individuals with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Approximately 5% of lung adenocarcinomas, the most common histologic subtype of NSCLC, harbour rearrangements in the anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) gene leading to constitutive activity of the ALK kinase. Crizotinib was the first tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) demonstrated to be effective in advanced NSCLC.

Crizotinib Associated Renal Cysts [CARCs]: incidence and patterns of evolution.

Background: Novel therapeutic agents recently introduced for the treatment of cancer have several unusual side effects. An increased incidence of renal cystic lesions, often with features concerning for malignancy or infection, has been reported in patients with anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) - rearranged advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) treated with Crizotinib. Many of these lesions undergo spontaneous resolution despite developing complex features on imaging.