Lung Cancer & ALK+ NSCLC Education | Takeda

Lung cancer is one of the most common cancers and is the leading cause of cancer death worldwide, as of 2022. Even with substantial improvement in cancer screening, diagnosis and treatment over the past few decades, lung cancer made up approximately 18% of cancer-related deaths worldwide in 2022.^1-3 Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is the most common type of lung cancer, accounting for about 80-85% of all forms of lung cancer.⁴ There are a number of different driver mutations associated with NSCLC – making it complex to study, diagnose and treat.⁵

Anaplastic lymphoma kinase-positive (ALK+) NSCLC is a unique type of NSCLC caused by a change in the anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) gene, and accounts for about 3% to 5% of people with NSCLC. This means there will be roughly 40,000 new cases of ALK+ NSCLC worldwide each year. ^6-8 ALK+ NSCLC patients tend to have a more advanced stage of the disease upon diagnosis and may experience the spread of the disease to their brain. In fact, as many as 75% of people with ALK+ NSCLC will ultimately develop brain metastases during the course of their disease. ^9-10

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