SMART PEOPLE INSIGHT: Laetitia Decroix Guilloux

What are the unmet needs of the NSCLC patient population, and how do these impact patients?
In the EMEA region, it is estimated that over 523,000 people were diagnosed with lung cancer, and a further 425,000 died as a result, in 2020 alone.¹ To put that in context, that’s more than both breast and prostate cancer combined.¹ NSCLC is the most common type of lung cancer, making up approximately 85 percent of cases.²

For around three-quarters of people receiving an NSCLC diagnosis, the disease has already progressed to stage III or IV, which limits not only the treatment options available, but also the effectiveness of existing treatments.³ While we have made great strides in research and innovation over the years to make lung cancer a more manageable condition, prognosis remains poor, with the median five-year survival rate for lung cancer patients being less than 20 percent.²

For me, this means that there is an urgent need for advances in this space, to ensure that we can provide the right treatment to the right patients – to not only improve life expectancy but also quality of life and meaningful time spent with loved ones.

What role does precision medicine play in the treatment of NSCLC?
Identifying specific alterations in underlying tumours can have a dramatic impact on individuals and their appropriate targeted treatments, improving life expectancy and critically enhancing their quality of life.² This is our goal for the NSCLC community and precision medicine is helping lead the way on how we can achieve that.

NSCLC can be associated with several different genetic alterations that require individual treatment strategies, so for many patients, a one-size-fits-all approach doesn’t give the best chance of survival.⁴ However, by looking deeper into the genetics and molecular information of tumours, healthcare professionals can use more targeted, personalised approaches to improve patient outcomes.⁵ Advancing science to understand disease patterns at a cellular level is vital for identifying solutions that will help patients experience a better quality of life for longer.

How can pharmaceutical companies continue to support this patient community in the future?
It is the responsibility of pharma companies to lead through innovation, and to never stop searching for new solutions. For myself at Janssen, I want to make cancer a fight that patients can win. The core of what we do is for the patient – this means giving patients and their families more time and quality of life as we work to deliver cures. As a community, we’ve already made great progress through improved understanding of disease genetics and adoption of early personalised care. However, it’s vital that pharmaceutical companies strive to think differently, drive progress and continue to bring innovative solutions to patients.

1. Globocan. Cancer Today. Estimated number of incident cases and deaths Europe, Middle East and Northern Africa (MENA), Africa, both sexes, all ages. Available at:  https://gco.iarc.fr/today. Accessed December 2021
2. Zappa C, et al. Non-small cell lung cancer: current treatment and future advances. Transl Lung Cancer Res 2016; 5(3): 288-300.
3. Knight S, et al. Progress and prospects of early detection in lung cancer. Open Biol, 2017; 7(9): 170070.
4. Antonoff, M. and D’Cunha, J. Non-small cell lung cancer: the era of targeted therapy. Lung Cancer: Targets and Therapy 2012(3): 31-41.
5. National Cancer Institute - Biomarker Testing for Cancer Treatment, 2021. Available at: https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/treatment/types/biomarker-testing-cancer-treatment. Accessed December 2021

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