At the 2025 ASCO cancer meeting, researchers shared encouraging updates on new treatments for both small cell and non-small cell lung cancer. One study showed that tarlatamab, a new type of targeted immunotherapy, helped patients with recurrent small cell lung cancer live longer with fewer side effects than standard chemotherapy — even in cases where the cancer had spread to the brain. This is an especially hopeful sign for a disease with very few second-line treatment options.
Another study focused on a pill called zipalertinib, developed for patients with an uncommon EGFR mutation (exon 20 insertion). Many of these patients had already tried chemotherapy or other targeted treatments with limited success. In the trial, zipalertinib shrank tumors in about one-third of patients, including those whose cancer had progressed or reached the brain. A third trial found that giving the targeted drug osimertinib before surgery helped shrink tumors in EGFR-positive lung cancer, and may reduce the chances of the cancer coming back.
These advances show how targeted therapies are becoming more personalized and effective — even for hard-to-treat lung cancers. For many patients, they represent not just longer life, but better quality of life. (Source: Memorial Sloan Kettering)
