Characterizing treatment of lung cancer patients in Germany based on real-world data with a special focus on novel therapies

Many treatment options are available for the treatment of lung cancer, such as surgery, radiotherapy and systemic therapy. In the last two decades in particular, the field of available drugs has been steadily expanded hrough the development and approval of targeted therapies and immunotherapeutics. Historical cohort studies based on insurance data were conducted to characterize therapy patterns of lung cancer patients in Germany. In the first study, patients were described with regard to all relevant therapy options, with a focus on age-related differences. The second study analyzed the utilization of targeted therapies (EGFR, ALK and BRAF inhibitors) and determines whether there are regional differences in the utilization of these drugs within Germany. The third study examined the utilization of immune checkpoint inhibitors and describes the occurrence of serious immune-related adverse events.