Veristrat

[DrBee]

Hi folks! I'm a little confused about Veristrat. At yesterday's first appt with onco, he told us that the Veristrat test had indicated that my sweet hubby "has only a small chance of responding well to Chemo alone". (Thank goodness he is an excellent candidate for Keytruda with a 99% PDL1 score.) But according to Wikipedia, 

"VeriStrat® is a test developed to evaluate patient prognosis and, additionally, predict benefit from cancer treatment by EGFR inhibitors.  .... In addition, the test appeared to be predictive of erlotinib impact on survival, as only "VeriStrat Good patients" benefited from such a treatment. Additional studies have confirmed its clinical relevance.[1]"

Does this mean it is a measure of overall prognosis, or prognosis related to EGFR inhibitors and erlotinib? 

I'm feeling  ready for a break from disappointing news...<3
 

[Tom Galli]

Bethany,

I think you are mixing metaphors. EGFR is a targeted therapy marker. Erlotinib or Tarceva is a targeted therapy treatment for adenocarcinoma NSCLC for people who have the EGFR tumor marker. If your husband’s cancer displayed the EGFR marker, he’d likely be prescribed Tarceva (Erlotinib). 

Neither EGFR nor Tarceva is linked in any way with PD-L1. PD-L1 is an immunotherapy marker and Keytruda is a very effective immunotherapy drug that many benefit from. The strong PD-L1 score means he’s likely to do very well on Keytruda. 

Stay the course. 

Tom

[DrBee]

12 minutes ago, Tom Galli said:

Bethany,

I think you are mixing metaphors. EGFR is a targeted therapy marker. Erlotinib or Tarceva is a targeted therapy treatment for adenocarcinoma NSCLC for people who have the EGFR tumor marker. If your husband’s cancer displayed the EGFR marker, he’d likely be prescribed Tarceva (Erlotinib). 

Neither EGFR nor Tarceva is linked in any way with PD-L1. PD-L1 is an immunotherapy marker and Keytruda is a very effective immunotherapy drug that many benefit from. The strong PD-L1 score means he’s likely to do very well on Keytruda. 

Stay the course. 

Tom

Hi Tom, and thank you for the clarification! I was just mentioning PD-L1 in the previous paragraph because I was sharing that we'd be doing Keytruda. But we are doing that along with chemo, and our onco said that the Veristrat test had suggested DH's cancer was unlikely to respond to chemo alone. I was just wondering how definitive of a test Veristrat was, and what kinds of chemo it meant he was not a good candidate for. 

[Tom Galli]

Bethany,

I’ve not heard of Veristat till you mentioned it. But, a combination of conventional chemotherapy (normally platinum based and another pairing) and immunotherapy (Keytruda) is now a first line national standard of care. 

I can’t link to Lung Cancer 101 information but search Keytruda on LUNGevity.org and you’ll see conditions where conventional chemo and Keytruda are used and learn why they are used. You might want to search the LUNGevity.org website for information on Veristat. 

His current treatment plan is a good one but I suggest you also consult with a radiation oncologist. That discipline and precision radiation may significantly assist in taming the beast. 

Stay the course. 

Tom