Pfizer Canada launches ALK positive advanced or metastatic NSCLC therapy

A validated ALK assay should be used to assess ALK-positive advanced or metastatic NSCLC in patients.

The Xalkori oral monotherapy can be prescribed if the patients are ALK-positive and advanced (not amenable to curative therapy) or metastatic, according to the company.

Pfizer Canada oncology business unit general manager Richard Fajzel said, "Personalized medicine is a shift from a one size fits all intervention to an approach where physicians select treatments based on the genetic make-up of their patient’s disease."

In ALK-positive lung cancer, a normally dormant gene called ALK is fused with another gene, predominantly EML4, which results in a protein production that is believed to be a key driver of tumor development in cancers such as non-small cell lung cancer.