BIOMARKER TESTING

[Info911]

My wife has extensive small cell lung cancer (SCLC-E) and has undergone chemotherapy, immunotherapy and radiotherapy. Her lung tumor is currently stable and I want to get options if her current immunotherapy (atezolizumab every three weeks) becomes ineffective.

There are several chemotherapy options, such as lurbinectedin (she was in a clinical trial for this drug, but was not selected to receive the drug).

However, I am looking for other options and have read about approaches involving DLL3, a ligand that is highly expressed on the surface of small cell tumors.

Biomarker testing of my wife’s lung tumor was done by Caris, but I do not see any mention of DLL3 in their report. Is testing for DLL3 a Standard part of genomic testing?

I would greatly appreciate any input on this subject. Thank you.

[RoyCastleHelpline Partner Ask the Nurse Roy Castle]

Hi Info911

Welcome to the forum , we are sorry to hear of your wife’s lung cancer and how difficult this must be for you both.

The DLL3 (Delta-Like Ligand 3) is a biomarker that is now coming more relevant for the treatment with targeted therapies for SCLC; as we are based in the UK, it is difficult to know if the health care system routinely tests this in the USA.

You could perhaps discuss this with the oncologist and ask if this was routinely tested and if not, could your wife be tested.

This is the link to Caris Life Science where your wife’s initial testing was done: carislifesciences.com/

It is an exciting time for these new biomarkers for SCLC and the DLL3 is now being involved in clinical trials.

You may wish to contact the lung cancer charities in the USA in regards to this and I have placed some links below:

lcfamerica.org/

and

lung.org/

and the online forum for the USA

go2.org/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI...

I hope this helps and you are welcome to download any of our information booklets from our website: roycastle.org/help-and-supp...

These are the links to our latest news and research, but this is based in the UK: roycastle.org/news/ and roycastle.org/research/

Wishing you both the very best

Kind regards

The Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation

[Info911 in reply to RoyCastleHelpline]

Thank you for your response and the helpful information provided. I did contact Caris directly and they confirmed that they did not test for DLL3. Testing for DLL3 requires a different type of test that is not routinely carried out when a biomarker study is ordered.

Thanks for your help.