Monday, November 6, 2017 – The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Alecensa (alectinib) as a first treatment for advanced non-small cell lung cancer that is positive for a biomarker called ALK.  Alecensa was already approved for ALK+ lung cancer that was resistant to other ALK-targeted therapies. Now, a large randomized clinical trial showed that Alecensa was more effective than previous first-line treatment.  Patients had an average of 25.7 months without their cancer progressing (getting worse) when taking Alecensa compared to 10.4 months on the rival drug Xalkori (crizotinib).  Alecensa also worked particularly well for patients whose cancer had spread to the brain and central nervous system.  Read the full FDA announcement.

This therapy is only recommended for patients that are ALK+. If you or someone you know has lung cancer, talk to the treatment team about molecular testing and call our LungMATCH program at 1-800-298-2436 to learn more and get tested.